Weekly Review April 26 '13

I have a few minutes before the missionaries arrive for dinner, so I'll see how much I can get written by then.  We are certainly keeping busy.  I didn't get any time to write this post yesterday and we are well into the day today.  Last Saturday Frank continued to work on getting a server set up for one of his clients so he was gone all day again.  I had a lot of things going on that day--a couple of RS visits, checking in with another sister who was supposed to have surgery soon (she found out yesterday that she doesn't have to have surgery after all and she is ecstatic about that), taking Seth to get a haircut, and a whole bunch of weeding in the front flower beds.  I also took the older boys to get some donuts--they earned coupons for free donuts for their grades this last term.  (Jared got all A's, Tanner got two A's and two B's.)  The coupons were for a little local donut shop called The Fractured Prune.  Strange name, but the donuts are delicious.  They make them hot while you're there and you choose what topping you want on yours.  (I got "Blueberry Hill"; someone else chose "Cookies & Cream")  Jared was explaining to Seth on the way over what prunes are and what they do to your system when you eat them and he had Seth in hysterical laughter.  It's a boy thing!  I also cleaned the kitchen floor that day, worked on Personal Progress, went on a walk, and gave Seth a bath.  Tanner and Jared had to be at the school that evening for the play, so I took them over there too.  Frank was tired when he got home that evening, but so was I.

 

Sunday morning I had Ward Council...it was an extra one so we could watch and discuss part of the Worldwide Leadership Training video.  I had choir practice later and that evening Tanner, Jared and Frank had a Stake Priesthood Meeting. 

 

I had lots of errands to run on Monday.  That afternoon I had presidency meeting.  Tanner and Jared had the play again this week end, but since they had performed 3 times already they didn't have any rehearsals this week.  It was nice to have them home a lot more this week.  After Seth got home from school on Monday we did the experiment part of his science fair project.  We decided to freeze salt water and fresh water to see if they freeze differently.  We put salt water in two cups and fresh water in two cups.  Here he is making the labels for the cups so we'd know which was which:  

 

 

He colored "lakes" on the freshwater labels and yellow and blue for sand and ocean on the salt water labels.  After we labeled the cups, we mixed the salt water:

 



 

 

Here's the four cups, ready to go into the freezer:

 



 

After that, we checked all four cups every 15 minutes.  We checked the water temperture in each cup and wrote down our observations.  It took about 3 hours for them to freeze completely.  So, did they freeze differently?  I know you are dying to know! :)  The answer is yes--they did freeze differently.  The salt water temperature dropped quicker than the freshwater, but we started to see evidence of freezing in the freshwater sooner.  The freshwater froze into a solid block like this:

The salt water got slushy and eventually froze into small chunks like this:

 

The chunks froze together eventually--but not until the next morning.  It was kind of a fun experiment.   Since then, I've been working with Seth to get the writing done for his display board.  He's supposed to do the actual writing himself, although I can help him figure out what to say and have him copy my writing.  I've been having him write a little bit every day. 

While we were waiting for the water to freeze, we had family night activity.  Then I took the boys to Dairy Queen for a treat--Frank stayed home to keep checking the water; we brought a blizzard home for him. 

Tuesday was our 21st Anniversary.  We did the usual things during the day--Frank went to work and I did fun things like clean all the bathrooms.  My visiting teachers came over too.  But that afternoon I received a gigantic vase full of long stemmed red roses: 

(I love how you can see Seth in the background of this picture.)

That evening we went out for dinner too.  I'm glad we celebrated on that day because Frank started feeling sick on Wednesday and he hasn't been very well since then.

On Wednesday Snickers had a follow up visit with the vet--his ear infection is all cleared up now.  Frank went to a client's after his regular work day to follow up on the new server and to fix a problem with a computer that had come up, so he got home pretty late.  I had been asked to help with an activity for the YM / YW that evening.  Seth went to play with another boy in the ward while I did that.  The activity was pretty interesting.  The kids were told that they were having a carnival and that local businesses and ward members had donated some really great prizes.  When they got to the carnival, they were each given 10 tokens and told that they used the tokens to play games.  Some of the games would earn them tickets and some of the games would earn them more tokens.  The tickets would help them to earn the prizes.  The prizes were things like shirts, iPods, clocks, etc.  They could also use the tickets to purchase food--slices of pizza, cinnamon rolls, donuts, cookies, etc.  The more entertaining games earned tickets.  The spiritual based  games (questions about the scriptures, etc) earned them tokens.  They had to pay a token to play each game but if they chose the spiritual games they got their token back at the end of the game, along with a few more.  Anyway, the whole thing was actually a set up.  As the kids started to play the games, there were two of the YSAs who started coming in the room and quietly taking kids out, one by one.  After they went out, they were told that they had "died" and were taken to be "judged".  The judges were members of the bishopric, dressed in white.  The judges took away all of their stuff--food, tickets, etc--because when you die you can't take anything with you.  They also asked them questions about the choices they had made at the carnival.  It turns out that the tokens represented talents, and so it was better to have a lot of tokens.  The tickets were worthless, and no one got any of the "prizes" that they thought they were going to get.  After everyone "died", they had a meeting in the chapel with music and speakers who talked about the plan of salvation.  I missed that part, because I had to get Seth home to bed.  (All I had to do was run one of the games.)  Anyway, I'm sure it's an activity that the kids will not forget.  A few kids were upset about it...Tanner and Jared didn't mind much though.  I'm still not sure I like the fact that they tricked the kids like that, although I know the purpose was to teach them some valuable lessons.

By the time I got home, Frank had just arrived home.  He was feeling nauseous and seemed to have a fever too (although Frank never actually gets a high temperature--he just gets alternately hot and then cold).  He's been feeling a lot the way Tanner felt last week.  Thursday morning he was probably worse so he took sick days on Thursday and Friday.  Besides the new illness, he has continued to have trouble with a nasty cough.  He's starting to think the cough might be allergy related. 

I had a luncheon with some of the RS sisters on Thursday, at my secretary's house.  We are going to have these little luncheons every few months--we invite a small group of sisters so we can get to know them better.  This was our first one and it wasn't very well attended.  Hopefully we'll get more people to come next time.  Tanner & Jared had the play again that evening.

I had visiting teaching appointments yesterday morning.  Then I worked on the budget until it was time for me to leave for a "Girls' Night Out".  Last night was our stake's Fathers / Sons Camp Out, so a lot of the women were home alone.  No one from our house went on the camp out this year--Tanner & Jared had the play.  Originally, Frank had planned to take Seth and go to the camp out, but since he was sick and Seth also has developed a lot of congestion and a yucky cough this week, they were not able to go.  They stayed home and watched a movie together while I met the women at a cafe to eat and then went to one sister's house to watch a chick flick.  There weren't a lot of us there, but it was fun.  I stayed out way too late and got to bed very late last night (or, more accurately, very early this morning). 

I did not sleep in this morning, however.  I had an 8:00 appointment to get my hair done.  Then I ran errands, finished the budget, cleaned the kitchen floor, and went on a walk.  Jared got the lawn mowed. This evening we had the missionaries over for dinner.   Jared and Tanner were already over at the school for the play--they had dinner before they left.  We had three missionaries come this time because one of the traveling APs came with them.  They gave us a nice message. 

We've had fairly nice weather this week although most mornings have been quite cold--even down to freezing.  One day it was pretty chilly all day but most days it warmed up nicely during the day and we've had lots of sunshine.  (It did rain Wednesday night, though.)  My pansies are looking happy:
        

 

Tonight is the last performance of the play.  It's the last play of the year, so they also have "Senior Night"--where they honor all the seniors that are involved with theater.  I remember last year Scott and Tanner both came home feeling pretty emotional after that so I expect Tanner and Jared will probably be the same tonight.  I know Tanner feels a lot closer to the seniors than he does to the kids his own age and younger so he is pretty bummed that they are all graduating.  Here are Jared and Tanner in their "Young Frankenstein" shirts:

(I'm not very thrilled with the plays their director chooses most of the time.  We didn't even go to see this one.)

Next year Tanner is going to be in a special program called the Arts & Communications Academy.  It will be for two of his class periods all year.  He just found out this week that he was accepted.  He is happy about that!  I hope it is a good experience and that he learns a lot.  He is also planning to take AP Literatue and an advanced physics & chemistry class that lasts all year.  (Most of their classes at this school only last half the year--I've always thought that was dumb.)  So he'll be pretty busy but I know he can handle it.

That's everything I can think of to write about for this week.

Weekly Review April 19 '13

I don't have any pictures again this week because I didn't get around to buying a new SD card until yesterday, and there hasn't been anything notable to take pictures of since then.  Maybe next week I'll have something interesting to record.

Until then, you are stuck with boring words.  The tax guy did not call me back before their closing time on Friday, so I went online and filed an extension.  He did call me Monday morning, so maybe I could have filed in time but since I already had an extension and I was busy with other things, I didn't do it that day.  He was able to answer my questions and I don't think it will be hard to get it done now so I don't plan to put it off long.  The good news is, he said I don't have to file a balance sheet or depreciation schedule, even though the instructions say I do.  That simplifies things a lot.

Seth's illness turned out to be a lot more long term than I anticipated.  He was great all day on Friday but Saturday morning he said he felt sick again and he had dry heaves all day and wouldn't eat anything.  Sunday he was better again but Monday morning he woke up around 4:00 am with diarrhea and nausea.  He was half asleep and disoriented, so we had a fun mess to clean up at that early hour.  The rest of Monday he didn't have any problems but he still didn't eat anything so I kept him home from school Tuesday to make sure he was all better.  I didn't want to send him back to school until he had at least a little bit of solid food--he went five days without eating more than a few crackers!  He finally made it back to school on Wednesday, just in time for Tanner to start feeling sick.  Tanner came home from school early that day.  He never has thrown up, but his stomach hurts a lot and he's been really nauseated.  Unfortunately, this is very bad timing since the school play opened last night (Thursday).  He missed the dress rehearsal on Wednesday and the opening night last night but today he went in to school late, hoping that he would be ok because he really wants to be there for the performance tonight.  He's been there over 4 hours and I haven't received a phone call yet, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Meanwhile, my stomach started feeling a little cramped yesterday and Frank feels that way today.  I didn't eat much yesterday but so far I've been ok other than the cramping.  Hopefully we will get this illness out of our systems soon!

Going back to last week, Jared did make it to the temple on Friday evening.  Tanner worked at the school until late.  Jared went to spend the night with his friend Taylor after the temple trip.  Frank was up early Saturday morning and spent the day putting in a server for a client.  Tanner was at the school most of the day working on sets.  So just Seth and I were at home most of the day, and Seth was on the couch sick all day.  I woke up with a crazy desire to clean, so spent almost all day de-cluttering and deep cleaning the kitchen.  I still have a few cupboards to finish, but most of it is done and it really does look a lot better.  I was SO tired and sore by the end of the day though!  After Frank got home I took Tanner to get a haircut and ran some errands.  Tanner and Jared both went to a stake Seminary acitivity that evening which they seemed to enjoy.

Sunday was a little crazy since we had to keep Seth home from church.  Frank went to Sacrament Meeting and then we traded places so that I could go to RS.  We were supposed to give Wanda (a lady I visit teach who is in a wheelchair) a ride to church and back but I asked one of my counselors to pick her up.  I did take her home, though.  I had choir that evening and the boys had a fireside but we got mixed up on the time so they missed it.  We did have family night which is good since I don't think all five of us have been home at the same time since (except when we're sleeping). 

Monday I took Jared to an orthodontist appointment, then he and Frank went to get haircuts.  After that Frank took Jared back to school for the play rehearsal.  He and Tanner were both gone every day after school until late (except for Tanner on Wednesday since he was sick) for rehearsals / set building.  I did more cleaning on Monday--sweeping and mopping most of the floors--as well as vacuuming and laundry.

Tuesday I did a lot of stuff for RS.  I also had to help Seth figure out what he is going to do for a science fair project since his form was due on Wednesday.  I had a presidency meeting that evening, late.  We were supposed to have it during the day but since Seth was still home from school, Frank had so much work to do that he couldn't watch him, the older two boys were at the school until late, and one of my counselors was leaving on a trip so I didn't want to expose her (or anyone else) to Seth, I had to have the meeting after Seth was in bed for the night.  Crazy!  It worked out though because I was able to pick Tanner and Jared up from the school on my way home from the meeting.

I spent Wednesday morning at the school working on pledge drive stuff and then got shopping done in the afternoon.  After that I crashed for a while because I had a bad headache but after taking Tylenor and resting for a few hours I felt better.  I made dinner and then spent the evening weeding the front flower bed.  My allergies have been acting up a bit since then but the flower bed looks a lot better.  The lawn needs to be mowed again but the boys haven't been home to do it and today it is supposed to rain a lot. 

Yesterday I wasn't feeling great, as I mentioned, but I still had a lot to do.  Tanner stayed home from school so I tried to take care of him.  I did laundry, vacuumed, bought groceries, and ran back to Wal-Mart for a couple of things I had forgotten (yard waste bags and the new SD card).  I had a visit at 1:00 but she forgot I was coming so we re-scheduled.  After that I crashed for a while again (not sleeping, just resting).  I hadn't eaten all day because I was afraid to try so I felt kind of weak.  Again, after resting for a few hours (and eating a little) I felt better.  I got Seth to bed and de-cluttered the cabinet under our bathroom sink. 

Today I am still eating a little sparingly but I haven't gotten any worse.  Frank had a bad headache this morning and as I said, his stomach is feeling a little cramped so he only went into work for a few hours.  He is working here at home, though.  He still has a pretty nasty cough from his illness a few weeks ago.  He's had a busy and stressful week.  He's been finishing up putting in two servers for two clients.  Besides that, he is in the process of applying for new positions at work so that hopefully he will still have a full time job.  I can't say much about that because they are being highly confidential about all the changes (even though I think only my parents and maybe occasionally a sibling reads this blog!) but maybe it's safe to say that he had a couple of interviews this week and will have at least one more next week.  He was really nervous about one of the interviews, but it went really well.  He decided he needs to have a suit for all these interviews (he hasn't owned a suit for many years) so he got one this week.  It looks nice on him!  Anyway, I have no idea when we will know for sure how this is all going to pan out.  I am thankful that it is not stressing me out too much (it's a lot more stressful for Frank).  I really feel like everything is going to turn out ok, one way or the other.

I updated the budget this morning and after I finish this post I am going to write to Scott.  I have plans to do some more de-cluttering /cleaning this evening.  Tanner and Jared will be gone late for the play (unless Tanner decides he needs to come home).  I wanted to go to the temple but my stomach is feeling too "iffy" for that.  Hopefully we'll make it back to the temple soon...it has been far too long!  Ok, it's only been a month but it seems too long.  I've been trying to go twice a month.

That's all I can think of about this week--hopefully we will be healthier next week.  I have a ton of things on my calendar next week so it's going to be busy.     

Family Photo Shoot March 2013

When Anna was here she was nice enough to take some family photos for us.  (Thankfully, we got this done before June started throwing up!)

 

I like how she captured the boys' playfulness in the candid shots.  Enjoy!

 

Elder Cleveland!

To make up for the lack of pictures this week, I am posting these pictures we just received via email today from Scott's mission president:

 

(I think he looks tired...look at those bags under his eyes!  Well, he definitely wasn't used to keeping missionary hours before he left.)

 With President & Sister Miller

I'm not sure if this picture is of all the missionaries who had just come in, or if it's the ones who just came in with their new companions, or if it also includes some of the APs and office staff.  There was no explanation with it.  At any rate, they are a nice looking group!  Especially the tall one in the middle back row....

The pictures also came with a nice letter. 

It made my day to get these!

Weekly Review April 12 '13

While I'm waiting for the guy from the Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation to call me back, let's see how much of this week's post I can get written.  I have a feeling I might get it all done--I'm guessing he's getting a lot of phone calls today from people like me who are trying to figure out their Personal Property Tax Return.  I'm in a grumpy mood about it--if they really want us to fill out a proper return, they should really have better instructions.  If someone like me, who has an accounting degree, reads their instructions and still has lots of questions about how to fill out their balance sheet, then something is wrong.  I'm also feeling grumpy because they insist that we have to report our personal property (this is for the business) when all we have is a computer, a printer, and a desk--all of which are used for other purposes besides the business and all of which were given to us years before we ever considered having a business.  We didn't purchase any of them.  How am I supposed to place a value on those?  I don't even know what they cost originally, let alone what they are worth now (probably nothing). Well, that's the reason I'm waiting for the guy to call me back.

I did take a few pictures this week but now my SD card can't be read so I can't get the pictures off of it.  Fortunately, they are just pictures of flowers and things like that...nothing irreplaceable...and I copy the pictures from the SD card to my computer every week, so all the older pictures on there have already been copied.  But no pictures this week...sorry!

We really enjoyed General Conference.  It is always a great spiritual feast!  That's mostly what we did all weekend.  I did do some house cleaning Saturday morning before the first session.  During the first session we enjoyed sub sandwiches for lunch, courtesy of our ward's cub scout pack--they made them as a fundraiser.  In between sessions, Frank and I went on a walk.  The missionaries were coming for dinner, so they joined us for the second session (for us, it's from 4:00-6:00) and we had dinner right afterwards.  There's a new Elder serving in our ward--Elder Green--who is from Orem.  I knew that already, but when I was able to question him more extensively, it turns out that he lives near the church on the corner of 800 East & 1200 North!  He says he was in the Canyon View 3rd Ward--same ward we were in.  I'm sure we know some of the same people, but of course my mind went blank when I tried to think of the people I knew in that ward.  Besides, I know a lot of people have moved in and out since we were there, and I'm sure the ward boundaries have changed several times.  (As a matter of fact, his address was not in our ward boundaries during the time we lived there, it was just north of our boundaries.)  Anyway, it was kind of fun to find out we lived so close together.

Tanner missed the Saturday sessions of General Conference--he was at the school all day working on sets for the play.  He did get home in time for dinner and went to the Priesthood session with Frank and Jared.  Sunday we relaxed and enjoyed the other two sessions of conference.  I made a few calls for RS to set up some visiting appointments and we had family night that evening. 

I had visits Monday morning...my secretary and I visited two sisters in the ward.  I bought groceries and did laundry.  I did most of the house work without help this week because Tanner and Jared were so busy with the play. (The boys usually help with vacuuming, sweeping, bathroom cleaning, and laundry folding.)  They stayed after school every day for at least a few hours...Tanner was usually there later, until 9:00 or 10:00 at night.

Tuesday we got our federal and state tax returns filed.  I'm glad to have that done...just wish I could get this last personal property tax return figured out so I'd be done with taxes for the year!  We actually have to pay the federal government this year, but we are getting a refund from the state that is larger than what we have to pay to the federal government so it's not bothering me much.  We set aside a portion of the business earnings all year to cover taxes, so now most of that is now our "refund" for this year.

We had our monthly RS evening meeting on Wednesday.  It went well, I think.  We had more sisters come than usual and the speaker was really interesting and fun.  The topic was "speed cleaning".  I don't know if I learned how to clean any faster than I usually do (I already do most of the things she suggested) but I think I came away with a better feeling about the importance of all the mundane cleaning things I do every day and I also felt more motivated to clean / declutter my house.  I have become pretty discouraged about that particular thing over the last few years so I need a boost to motivate me to try again.

Yesterday morning I took Seth with me to take all the seminary kids to the high school (Frank was gone to work already) and between dropping them off at the school and home, Seth started to throw up.  Just out of the blue...didn't even warn me that he was feeling sick!  Thankfully, he hadn't eaten anything yet so there wasn't much to come up and he had a blanket in his lap so the clean up was easy--just throw the blanket in the washer.  However, he was very sick all day.  In spite of the fact that he didn't eat anything, he kept throwing up small amounts of stomach acids all day long (with an occasional tiny bit of ginger ale, since I gave him very small amounts of it off and on, hoping it would settle his stomach.)  He stayed on the couch all day watching television and sometimes dropping off for a few minutes.  I didn't stray too far from him all day--just got a few things done around the house such as laundry and vacuuming.  After Frank got home from work I made a run to the grocery store. 

Seth threw up right before bedtime last night, but then he slept all night without any problems and this morning he is finally keeping down ginger ale, so hopefully he is on the mend.  Thankfully, our carpool family has been able to get their kids to school without my help the last two days so I haven't had to worry about that.  Today I have our personal budget to get updated besides trying to finish the property tax return so I expect I'll have numbers coming out my ears by evening.  Jared is hoping to go to the temple tonight with the youth...he's not sure he can get away from school in time for the appointed carpool meeting time at the church.  Tanner is sure he won't get away in time, so he is not planning to go.  It's too bad the temple trip fell on a week that they are so busy.

As you may have heard, we've finally had some nice weather around here, although it has felt more like summer than spring.  We've had temperatures in the high 80's most days this week.  It was warm enough to comfortably be outside at night in shorts, short sleeves, and sandals!  After a few days of warmth, all the trees exploded into bloom.  Most of them didn't even show signs of budding a week ago--it's been so cold.  So it's been a pretty dramatic transformation the last few days.  Most of my tulips have come up and bloomed, as well.  I got some pansies at the store this week which I planted in pots and put on the front steps.  Jared mowed the lawn last Saturday so the yard actually looks quite nice except for the abundance of weeds in the flower beds.  Frank wants me to wait to weed until he gets some mulch to spread over the beds when I'm done, but he hasn't had a chance to do that yet.  He's been really busy this week still.

Today is more like spring...temps in the 50s, and this morning it rained cats and dogs for a few hours.  We are happy to finally get some nicer weather but I know not everyone has been so lucky.  It's crazy all the places (including Utah) that have still been getting snow this week...some places even a lot of snow.  This is one of the strangest springs I can ever remember.

Frank is putting another server in for another client this week end, so I don't expect to see much of him tomorrow.  I don't know how he keeps up with all the work he has sometimes, but I'm grateful he is willing to work so hard. 

We received another email from Scott on Saturday, which I forwarded on to most of you so you should be up to date about him.  He left the MTC on Wednesday, but we haven't heard from him since then.  We do know he made it up to his mission headquarters because on Wednesday evening (while I was gone to RS) Frank got a call from a lady in Utah who wanted to let us know that "Elder Cleveland" was at her house for dinner and that he was doing well and going to be a great missionary!  She said "I know you can't talk to him, but I just wanted you to know he is here."  I think that is pretty funny!  Frank forgot to ask her where she lived, so we don't know where he's been assigned although when I checked his bank account online this morning he had made a purchase at a Super Wal-Mart in Riverton yesterday, so I assume that's where he is.  I guess we will have to wait until we hear from him to find out.  I think his P-day will probably be on Mondays now, so I don't expect to hear from him until then.

Well, the tax guy still hasn't called me back...I hope I hear from him before closing time.  This return is also due on Monday, so I'm running out of time.  

Weekly Review April 5 '13

I hope everyone had a happy Easter!  Ours was pretty nice.  On Saturday we dyed Easter eggs, in addition to all the other things we had to do.  On Sunday morning, our table looked like this:

 

When I told Seth he needed to eat some breakfast, he looked at the table, looked at me and asked doubtfully "Candy?"  That made me laugh!  No, we didn't have candy for breakfast but we did have hard boiled eggs:

Here is Seth with "his" egg (we each put our name on one with wax crayon before dying it):

Easter Sunday was relaxing because we didn't have any extra meetings.  Frank still wasn't very well, though, so he stayed home from church.  He had a terrible cough still.  (He went to the doctor Saturday morning and was diagnosed with a touch of bronchitis in addition to a sinus infection.  He was treated with two prescriptions: an antibiotic and some cough syrup with Codeine.  But neither one had started helping much yet at that point.)

Having Frank stay home made things a little complicated because I was singing in the choir and was supposed to sit up front for the the whole meeting (we sang three different songs).  Tanner and Jared both needed to help with the sacrament.  So that left Seth sitting alone until after the sacrament.  I debated what to do and finally decided to let him try sitting alone (I did ask the family sitting in front of him to keep an eye on him).  He certainly didn't sit perfectly still, but all in all he did pretty well...at least he didn't make a bunch of noise!  I loved the songs we sang for choir and all the talks were good...it was an uplifting meeting.  I love Easter!

After church we had a nice ham dinner and enjoyed relaxing.  The boys' spring break continued through Wednesday.  I enjoyed sleeping in a bit and not having to be on a set schedule.  Other than that, it wasn't very restful, though...I still had lots to do every day and didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked.  I did have the boys work on some things for scouts and on Tuesday Frank took Tanner to get his learner's permit:
 

I let him drive around the church parking lot a little bit on Wednesday but that's all he's done so far.  We don't want to let him out on the road until he's had a little more experience in the parking lot!  He hasn't taken driver's ed yet so he has no experience behind the wheel other than that.

Monday evening we played some games (Wii sports resort) for family night and then we all watched the movie Wreck It Ralph.  Except I didn't watch the whole thing because part way through it I suddenly started to feel nauseous and I ended up upstairs with a nasty case of the stomach flu.  Again!  That's the second time in about six weeks that I've had the stomach flu and no one else in the family has had it but me.  I find that very strange.  Maybe it was food poisoning, but I also had a fever that evening so that makes me think it was a bug of some kind.  At any rate, after being miserable for a few hours I finally fell asleep and by morning I was weak and a little dizzy, but able to keep down liquids.  I rested for most of the day Tuesday.

Wednesday was the last day of spring break.  Jared went to his friend Ian's house for most of the evening.  I had a presidency meeting that morning and a meeting with the bishop that evening, with Wal-Mart shopping in between, so it was a pretty busy day for me.

Thursday was busy, too.  Everyone went back to school and I got a lot of things done for Relief Society.  Snickers had his teeth cleaned that day...Frank dropped him off early that morning and I picked him up around noon.  One of his teeth was very decayed and had to be pulled (it was practically falling out anyway).  The vet also checked his ears and they don't look completely better yet so we have to continue putting drops in his ears for another 2 weeks.  He's been a little "off" since yesterday--didn't start eating again until late this afternoon and yesterday he whimpered occasionally.  I think the anesthesia made him feel a little nauseated and he just didn't feel quite right.  He is perkier today than yesterday and seems to be getting back to normal.

Tanner and Jared both had to stay after school yesterday for play rehearsal.  They are both helping with sets / lighting / sound for the upcoming play, which is Young Frankenstein. ( I am not very impressed with most of the choices their director makes.)  It starts in two weeks so they are going to be very busy for the next three weeks. 

Today Frank and I went to talk to one of his clients who is a CPA--we had a few questions about our tax return, plus a personal property tax return that we have to fill out for the business.  We are running out of time to get those filed!  He helped with most of our questions, though, so I don't think it will be too hard to finish up now.  I had some errands to run today too, and took cookies to a sister I visit teach (it's her birthday) and worked on the budget and got visiting teaching changes figured out.  It's been another busy day. 

Frank has continued to be very busy also.  He is installing a new server for a client tonight.  Thankfully, he is feeling a lot better than he was although he still has trouble with his cough occasionally.  It seems like Frank is working all the time; at least some of the time he is at home, at least.  It is a great financial blessing but sometimes I wish he didn't have to work so hard.

We got our first letter from Scott on Saturday.  I woke up with this strong feeling that I needed to send him an email that day, and I'm glad I did!  I'm sure it was nice for him to hear from us on his first P-day.  He sounds happy, which makes us happy.  He is in a threesome (he calls it a "tripanionship") and loves his companions.  They are in a district of five Elders...all five are going to his mission together.  He and his two companions are the zone leaders.  He leaves the MTC April 10th (this Wednesday!) and he says they will ride the train to their mission.

Speaking of Scott, I need to write him a letter now, so that wraps it up for this week!

Weekly Review March 29 '13

Certainly this was an eventful week and one we will not soon forget.  As I suspected, it wasn't low stress. 

 

I had Ward Council early Sunday morning.  I wasn't really feeling that great--my stomach started hurting on Saturday and that evening my head hurt too and I was really worried that I was coming down with something.  However, I was no worse Sunday morning (maybe even a little bit better) so I decided to get up and get ready to go and I ended up being fine.  My stomach continued to hurt off and on that day and the next, but it never got worse.  It was strange--I never felt nauseated at all, it just hurt.  Erin said she had felt the same way for a few days earlier that week, so maybe some strange mild virus was going around.  At any rate, I was really glad I was well enough to go to all of my meetings.  I especially wanted to hear Scott's talk, of course--and he did a great job.  Erin joined us for all of our meetings and then stayed for dinner afterwards.  She had to leave shortly after that because she had visiting teaching appointments, but we are glad she could come!  I had choir that evening and we all went to a farewell openhouse for the Schlenz family after that.  Then we had family night so it was a full day--and not very restful! 

 

Our wacky "spring" weather continued this week with a winter storm coming in late Sunday night / early Monday morning.  We got a good 5 inches of snow from that (the snow was still coming down when we got up and continued to come down a good portion of the morning) and school was cancelled for the day.  The roads were not bad, though--really wasn't necessary to cancel it at all in my opinion.   

 

Scott had his wisdom tooth pulled that afternoon.  It didn't take long and it went well.  I had the dentist x-ray his other tooth and it had moved down quite a bit.  He thinks it will need to come out sometime in the next 6 months.  However, in spite of that I decided not to have him take the other one out.  He still would have had to dig for it a bit and I just didn't want Scott to have to deal with both at once while traveling and entering the MTC.  His mission president may not appreciate my decision later when he has to have the other one out, but I still think it was the best decision.  I'm not at all sure that Scott would have got on that plane if he had been dealing with pain on both sides of his mouth instead of just one.  Scott's mouth was pretty sore but not too bad.  He was able to spend some time with a few YSA friends that afternoon.  Also, two girls he knows from high school came to the house to visit with him.  It was a busy day getting lots of last minute things done and I was up pretty late hemming his white pants.  (It took a lot longer than it should have because I was using my new sewing machine so I was learning how the machine worked through the whole process.  Practically every step, I had to go to another part of the instruction book to learn how to do something else.  But I finally got them done and I really like my new machine!)

 

Oh and that evening (before I hemmed the pants) we went out to our stake president's house so Scott could get set apart as a missionary.  He wasn't all that happy when we left the house because he'd just had to say good bye to Allie but it was a sweet experience.  The stake president took the time to talk to us a bit and he asked Scott and I to both share our feelings, which I managed to do without crying (but Scott didn't).  He gave Scott a beautiful blessing, too. 

 

Tuesday morning Scott got up and began to pack, and things were going pretty well until he discovered that he had lost his wallet.  He'd left it in his inside suit coat pocket, and it wasn't there anymore.  We spent the better part of an hour looking for it, and feeling panicked.  Poor Scott was looking at me like "Am I really supposed to be going?"  I'm sure he was having his doubts after all the crazy obstacles that kept cropping up the last week.  We finally called the airlines, and then TSA, and were told that he could probably still fly if he had a copy of his birth certificate and his social security card.  We did have those, so we thought we'd just have to take those and hope for the best.  Then when Scott finished packing and went to put on his suit coat, his wallet went flying out of it!  All three of us had checked the pockets and it wasn't there.  All we can figure is that he put it in his sleeve instead of in his pocket, by accident.  We were just happy it turned up--lowered our stress levels quite a bit!  Besides, now he had access to his debit card and a few other things that he really needed. 

 

Scott's flight left at 4:30 so we go thim to the airport around 2:30.  We took all the other boys out of school early so they could come with us. (Frank worked from home that day.)  We stopped at Wendy's on the way and got frosties for everyone.  I forgot to take the camera, but thanks to Frank's smart phone, we were still able to take some pictures:    

 

 

(It was windy--that's why my hair is in my face)

 We're smiling in this picture because we realized Frank was taking a picture of us, not because we were happy to say good bye.

 There were definitely some tears...mostly just Scott, Tanner and I.  Seth didn't seem to grasp how long Scott will be gone, so he was not too upset.  I did most of my crying AFTER we got back in the car to go home.  But we are so glad he is going to have this great experience!  And I have to admit that the last few weeks have been so stressful that I am really glad that they are over!

Scott arrived in Utah without any trouble, we hear.  Many thanks to Daniel for picking him up and to Mom & Dad for feeding and lodging him and for taking him to the MTC!!!  I spoke to Scott for a few minutes late Tuesday night, after he got to Mom and Dad's house.  He sounded pretty upbeat and reported that his mouth felt a lot better than it had that morning.  I hope it has continued to heal.  Thanks to the Utah folks, I have a few pictures taken there:

With Grandma

Erika, Shellie, Scott, Amy, Mom, Anna, and June

Two missionary cousins!  (Scott and Timo)

Those last two pictures were taken at the cemetary, I believe.  As most of you know, Rachelle's Dad passed away last week and his funeral was Wednesday morning.  So Scott went with Mom & Dad to the funeral before they dropped him off at the MTC.  Since then, we've been wondering how he's been doing and hoping he's feeling ok!  We have no idea what day is his P-day so we don't know when we'll hear from him.  We are used to having him gone, but not used to not being able to communicate.  It will take some adjusting.  We miss him.

Frank woke up Wednesday not feeling very well, and now he is full-blown sick.  He has a sore throat, headache, congestion, and a terrible cough.  He went in to work for a while yesterday and on Wednesday and today he worked from home.  I hope he feels better soon! 

I had visiting teaching appointments Wednesday morning and then got some shopping done.  I ended up picking up two different boys from school for two different friends that afternoon / evening.  The boys had a Court of Honor that evening for YM, but since neither Tanner nor Jared were receiving any awards, Frank and I didn't go.  (Yes, we need to start working on scouting again!)

Yesterday was the first day of Spring Break.  It's been nice to sleep in the last few mornings.  I have not been relaxing otherwise, though, since my work is never done.  I had my annual mammogram yesterday morning; that went fine.  Besides the regular household chores (which the boys helped with) I've been working on taxes and updating the budget.  The budget updating took most of the day today.  Last night Jared went to his friend Joseph's house to play games until late.  Tanner and Jared are at their friend Taylor's house this evening to watch Les Miserables; they are also spending the night there.  So it's down to just Frank, Seth and I at home tonight--something that happens pretty frequently these days.

At Frank's work, the transition of the IT positions has started.  All the available jobs--for both Marriott and for the outsourcing company (Xerox)--are being posted and Frank has to apply for the job(s) he wants.  There have been a lot of problems with the website and the job postings are confusing too because none of the jobs are a complete match to the previous jobs.  So Frank has applied for a couple of Marriott jobs that fit parts of what he's been doing and he will apply for a couple of Xerox jobs as well.  We still don't know how it will all turn out but we are hoping when all is said and done that he will have a job and that he will like it.  It's been quite stressful for Frank the last few weeks but hopefully we'll know where we're going to be soon.

Everyone have a beautiful Easter!