Weekly Review June 28 '13

Last Friday evening Frank and I went out a date.  I forgot to take a camera, though, so no pictures.  We went to this place called Adventure Park where we played a game of mini golf and drove some go karts.  Then we went to downtown Frederick and got some ice cream from Ben & Jerry's.  It was a fun evening and I think we both needed it.  It was really nice to get away from all the demands of normal life for a while and just have some fun. 

 

Saturday we worked hard.  Frank and the boys worked on doing some cleaning in Frank's office.  They threw out a bunch of stuff and gave away a few things.  There is still a lot of work to do there, but it is a lot better than it was.  We did some more cleaning in the basement during the week and the boys worked on their room some more also.  We still aren't done, but there is enough of an improvement that I feel a difference when I go down there.  It's easier to move around because the main traffic area (including the stairs) is uncluttered now.  So nice!  We won't be able to finish up until we move the armoire downstairs, which we still haven't done because our couches and entertainment center still aren't here.  They were supposed to come "sometime this week" but the "sometime" turned into tomorrow.  And since they don't do deliveries on Saturday, we will have to wait until next week.  Pretty annoying!

 

Anyway, back to Saturday--I went on a walk and finished up Personal Progress.  Tanner had a lesson to get ready for Sunday.  (It seems like he and Jared both teach in their priesthood quorums pretty regularly now.  Did I mention they both spoke in Sacrament Meeting a few weeks ago as well?)  We had the Elders over for dinner Saturday evening.  We made homemade pizza--they loved it!

 

Sunday was busy--I had ward council before church, choir after church, and that evening Frank & I went to the Worldwide Missionary Training broadcast.  It was very good--but I also feel like I have a lot of work to do!  I wholeheartedly agree with what they are saying about missionary work, though--that it needs to be done in different ways to adapt to the changes in the world.  I think missionaries now are fortunate that we are starting to find other ways to share the gospel.  I asked Frank if he feels a little jealous that we can't be on missions now and he agreed with me. :)

 

Monday through Wednesday we were busy getting the house cleaned up some more.  Tanner & Jared had check ups on Monday.  All the boys had haircuts on Tuesday.  I did two food orders and wrote the presidency message for the RS newsletter.  Frank helped teach a new member discussion on Tuesday evening.  On Wednesday I went to the temple--I really didn't have time but I decided I needed to make time, and I'm really glad I went.  The traffic was terrible so it took me twice as long to get there as it usually does.  I loved being in the temple, though, and feeling calm.  I also had a presidency meeting Wednesday evening.  Between all of that stuff, the extra cleaning, and all the normal things that need to be done, we all kept really busy. 

 

This week end is youth conference, so now it feels quiet with only Seth, Frank and I at home.  Or maybe I should say just Seth and I, because Frank has been helping with all the cooking for youth conference and between that, his job, and work for clients he has barely been home.  I dropped the boys off at the stake center for youth conference early Thursday morning.  This year, the whole conference is missionary themed.  The cool thing is, our stake leaders felt prompted to do a missionary training youth conference right after our youth conference last summer, so they started planning it right away--BEFORE the changes in missionary age requirements were announced.  Now many of the youth who are participating will be leaving on missions within a year or less--some even have mission calls already.  Anyway, they assigned each youth to a district and each one has a companion.  They actually sent them "mission calls" in the mail to let them know what district they would be in, and it was fun to see how exciting that was for the boys.  Jared is in the Ireland district and Tanner is in the ASL district.  There are several other districts--Japan, Germany, Africa, etc. 

 

Here are some pictures I took when I dropped the boys off yesterday morning:



 

Two good looking missionaries!

Tanner with his companion, Taylor.  I didn't get a picture of Jared with his companion, though.

I hope they are having a great experience.  They are staying with the other members of their district at members' homes.  We were actually asked to host some of the youth--we were going to have five boys stay here last night and tonight--but then yesterday afternoon they let us know that not as many youth came as they expected so they didn't need to use our house after all.  That made me laugh, since a lot of the motivation for all the cleaning we've been doing was to make more room for the youth conference guests.  Oh well!  I don't mind at all because we needed some motivation to get us going.  I was also able to wash all the boys' bedding yesterday since they were gone, which I've been needing to do for a while. 

Frank worked from home yesterday--it was nice to have him around in the morning before he went to help with the cooking for youth conference.  Tanner and Jared both forgot to take their sneakers (they needed them for service projects they were doing in the afternoon) so Frank took them their shoes and then stayed to help cook.  I did grocery shopping and more cleaning in the morning.  Seth and I ran some errands in the afternoon--we mailed a package to Scott and then picked up my glasses & contact lenses that just came in.  We had to go to the mall to do that, and after we picked them up we walked around the mall a little bit and bought some Orange Julius drinks.  I haven't had one of those in years!  After our errands we had a quiet evening at home.  I finished the laundry and worked on some changes for visiting teaching. 

Today has been quiet too.  Frank went to work and then came home briefly before going over to help with cooking again.  I got the budget done this morning.  This afternoon I finished the apron I started at the RS activity.  I'll have to get a picture taken wearing it soon to include next week, but no one is here right now to take a picture of me besides Seth, and I don't want him to touch the camera!  We also took Snickers to the groomer and spent some time walking all around Pet Smart so that Seth could see the fish, birds, hamsters, etc.  Frank will be home late again tonight, so Seth and I are going to go out for dinner together.  Probably Burger King, since that's what Seth will want!  The boys will be home tomorrow late morning.

Our weather has completely changed this week and now it feels like August instead of June.  It has been very hot and humid, and nearly every afternoon we get a thunderstorm.  Some of them have been severe--we've had a severe thunderstorm watch and / or a tornado watch nearly every day this week! 

Snickers has been making lots of noise at night lately--we have no idea why.  He keeps barking and scratching and whining.  It's pretty annoying because he wakes us up.  Between his noise and the high humidity, it's been pretty hard to sleep well at night.  We've still been getting up pretty early, though.  I'm tired but I wake up anyway because it gets light so early.  I don't mind too much, though, because I like getting an early start to the day.  Last night when he was making a lot of noise I was really glad that the youth conference kids didn't end up coming over after all--I would have felt bad if he had kept them up.

This week end should be interesting--we are getting a new bishopric.  Everyone is speculating about who the new bishop will be!

On Wednesday afternoon when I was preparing for my presidency meeting, I got a call from Scott's mission office.  His other wisdom tooth is coming in and it's bothering him so he has to have it taken out.  He had already been to a dentist but he didn't know our dental insurance information.  So the lady from the mission office gave me the dentist's number and had me call their office to give them the information they need.  I don't know exactly when Scott will have the tooth out, but please keep him in your prayers that it will go fine and he won't have any complications.     

Weekly Review June 21 '13

 Here we are at the end of our first week of summer vacation, and I think it was fairly successful.  By that I mean that we enjoyed a more relaxing schedule but we also got some worthwhile things accomplished. 

Last Saturday was somewhat crazy.  Tanner and Jared spent the night with their friend Taylor on Friday night so they were gone until I went to pick them up Saturday afternoon.  Frank left around noon to go help with cooking / catering for a wedding and he didn't get back until 10:00 that night.  That left me to do all the running around for most of the day, and there was a lot of that.  I checked on Wanda (one of the women I visit teach), picked up a Father's Day cake (made by the YW) for Frank, picked up Tanner & Jared at Taylor's house, took Seth to a birthday party (at Pump It Up again) and picked him up when it was over, took Tanner to the Elders' apartment so he could go with them to some appointments, did some shopping, and took some milk to a couple in the ward who needed a gallon.  So yes...basically I was a chauffeur most of the day.  Somehow in between everything else, I managed to go for a walk, clean the kitchen floor, wrap Father's Day presents, and work on Personal Progress.  (I'm still working on my last value project...that's all I have left.  I'm getting close to finishing finally!)

I was very ready for a day of rest after all that, and fortunately because it was Father's Day, there were no extra meetings--just our regular meeting block.  Very restful! :)  I forgot to set an alarm so I didn't get up as early as I should have but we still managed to make French toast for Frank's breakfast:
   

And had time for him to open his cards and gifts:

 (Cake made by the YW.  Pretty cool!)

 

His other gift is a Soda Stream thing, which he's been asking for.  It's pretty cool, actually--you can make your own soda with it.  Easy, and it tastes great.

I did all the cooking that day, and Frank got to take a short nap.  It was a nice day.

I've been enjoying the lack of a rigid schedule this week.  I'm still getting up at around the same time most days, but just knowing I don't have to get up is nice.  Seth has woken up very early a few mornings--yesterday he got up at 5:45!  It works out pretty well for him to get up earlier, though, because that gives him his video game time undisturbed before the other two boys get up. (They get an hour each.)  We've had some gloomy rainy days and overall it hasn't been very hot but most days we've had temperatures in the 80s and it cools down at night--which is perfect, as far as I'm concerned!  Last night I noticed the fireflies for the first time.  I love when the fireflies come out--the trees look like they have tiny white blinking Christmas lights on them!

We did have a number of appointments this week.  I made the boys get up fairly early on Monday morning because I had a doctor appointment at 8:00.  Just a check up--I haven't had one of those in about 13 years so I figured it was about time.  I'm pretty healthy overall but had a few things I wanted looked at--like one of my toenails, which has some sort of fungus, my eyes that are watering again, and a spot on my hand that keeps scabbing and then coming back.  I have to have a dermatologist look at that.  I got some allergy drops for my eyes to see if that helps them--I think it might be helping a little. 

Tanner had his senior portraits taken on Monday morning also.  I admit when I got the notice in the mail for those that I teared up a bit.  I don't feel ready to have another son leaving home so soon!  Time needs to stop!  Hopefully the pictures turned out ok. 

Tuesday afternoon I had a presidency meeting.  Afterwards we cleaned out the RS closet so I didn't get home until nearly dinner time.  Frank went to help with a new member discussion that evening and Tanner went to a movie with friends. 

Wednesday I had my follow up appointment with the eye doctor.  That evening I made dinner for a family in the ward.  Tanner & Jared went to their friend Ian's house for the afternoon and from there to YM.  I had a meeting with the bishop that evening also. 

Thursday I had visiting teaching appointments all morning and that afternoon the boys and I had dentist appointments.  No one has cavities, which is always good news.  Jared went to the church to play basketball with friends that evening. Today we didn't have any appointments, which was nice for a change.  I spent most of the day updating the budget.

Seth has kept busy with some of his birthday presents.  One of his friends gave him this fun book called The Boys' Doodle Book which is full of half-finished pictures and a prompt to help you finish the picture.  For example, a guy swimming with a frightened expression on his face and the prompt "What is nibbling on his toes?"  He has loved drawing in that!  (In the picture, he is drawing what's under the bed.):   

 

Seth also used his birthday money from Grandma & Grandpa plus some money he's saved up to buy this Star Wars Lego set:



 

Tanner spent a couple of hours helping him build it yesterday.  Right before I took the picture, Seth broke it, but I helped him put it back together after I took the picture.  It was ridiculous how we ended up buying it--we found it on WalMart's website for the best price and it said they were in stock at our local store, so we took him over to buy it on Monday evening.  They had several there but the price was nearly $15 more than the price listed online.  The employees told us they sometimes have special prices for items online and unfortunately they aren't allowed to match them.  They said we could go online and order it though, if we wanted the lower price and then they'd let us "pick it up".  Frank did that on his iPhone but then the system messed up and said that there weren't any in stock at our store, so they had to send one to the store for us and wouldn't allow us to pick one up until the new set arrived.  So we ended up having to wait until Thursday until the set they sent to the store got there to pick it up!  Pretty dumb!  We probably would have given up and bought one of the ones at the store but it bugged us to pay that extra $15. 

 

We still don't have furniture, by the way.  The new couches are supposed to come sometime next week.  I'm praying the new ones aren't damaged too.  In the meantime, the boys dragged this big pillow downstairs so they can lie on it and watch television.  I thought this was cute that Seth & Snickers were sharing the pillow!:  

 

In between all the appointments this week, we had work to do--all the normal shopping, cleaning, laundry etc.  The boys had chores to do every day to help me, plus they have been working on cleaning their room thoroughly, doing a little bit every day.  They aren't done yet, and it certainly isn't up to my standards, but it is definitely looking a lot better.  I've also worked on the basement a little, and it is looking better although I'm not done yet either.  Here's a few pictures so you can see the progress:

(Before)

 (After)

I know, it still doesn't look great, but it's an improvement.  All the stuff on the left is empty containers that I will either use somewhere else or throw out.  Some of the other stuff will be going into the armoire when we move it down.  Everything else will be moved or thrown out!  See that chest of drawers on the right?  There used to be so much stuff in front of it that I couldn't get to the drawers. 

Another "before" shot:

 

And after: 

We still need to remove the large file cabinet.  The other stuff will be put in the armoire or moved, except I think the luggage will have to be stacked neatly next to the armoire.  A work in progress, but we'll get there.  Stay tuned for more "after" pictures.

 I also did a lot of work in Scott's room yesterday, but I didn't take any pictures.  I have most of his stuff boxed up now--he was supposed to do that before he left, but he didn't get it all done.  I want to have all of his stuff in boxes and moved elsewhere because one of the boys is going to move into his room this fall.  I agreed to let them do that so that Tanner can have his own room for the first time in his life--it's probably his last chance to have his own room, too, since after this he will be sharing with room mates, companions, and eventually (hopefully) a wife.  Having never had my own room myself, I'm sympathetic to his wish.  I decided it was ok to give up my craft room since I've accepted the fact that I'm probably not going to get any projects done while I'm the RS president.  Maybe in a couple of years!  I labeled the boxes of Scott's stuff and wrote down on cards what is in each box so he should be able to find things easily when he gets back.  I'm guessing he's not going to want a lot of it by then!

That's about it for this week.  The boys just took Seth to the park to play.  Frank has had an extremely busy week so he is taking a break from computers tonight.  He and I will probably go out to do something fun later.

Oh, one funny thing we've noticed Seth doing lately.  When he is coloring with crayons and makes a mistake, he has to scribble it out instead of erase (of course).  We noticed that when he scribbles something out, he stops and turns the crayon over and uses the other end to scribble it out, like he would do with a pencil so he can use the eraser.  It's so funny because he doesn't even realize that's what he's doing.  Cute!  I'm going to have him work on a few school work type things this summer so he won't forget everything he's been learning.  We found out who his teacher will be for next year and I've heard good things about her.  Several of his friends from his kindergarten class will be in that class too, so that will be nice for him.  

Weekly Review June 14 '13

 Isn't this a beautiful pie?

It's strawberry.  I made it at our RS activity on Saturday.  I wanted to get a picture of me in my pearls and new apron, holding the pie but unfortunately, I didn't quite finish the apron.  So I'll have to make another pie sometime after the apron is done. 

The activity turned out great.  My counselor who is in charge of the activities is amazing!  She has a great committee, too.  Everything looked so good--for the luncheon, they had centerpieces that looked like ice cream sundaes, except the ice cream part was really flowers.  They also made a "juke box" out of balloons, had large "records" on the walls, and had 50's music playing.  Oh...and a box of Cracker Jacks at each place, in retro wrappers.  It looked incredible. We had a lot of people come...both women and YW...and everyone seemed to enjoy the pie crust and apron classes.  It was really great to see many of the YW finish their entire apron during the class.  (I would have finished mine too if I weren't the RS president--had a few other responsibilities!)  We encouraged women to dress up and I really wish I had brought my camera.  I meant to, but I forgot.  We had awards for costumes and one of my counselors won one of them...she had this great 50's polka dot dress, pearls, white gloves, and a little hand bag!  We also had a jello salad competition and my jello salad came in 2nd place.  (I tried a new recipe I've never tried before with a pretzel crust, a layer of cream cheese & cool whip, and strawberry jello with real strawberries mixed in.  It was yummy!)  Overall, it was a very successful event and I was pleased with how it went...but tired when it was over.  We fed the missionaries that night--the new set of Elders--and they enjoyed the pie.

While I was gone all morning (and half the afternoon) Frank and Jared swept and mopped the kitchen and all the bathroom floors--I really appreciated that!  Tanner was gone all day--he was doing tech for a dance festival thing that was going on at the high school.  He will get paid for it, so that will be nice.

Sunday was not quite as hectic as some have been lately.  I did have PEC before church and we picked up Wanda too.  I had choir after church, but other than that I didn't have any other meetings so I actually had time to help Seth put together a little puzzle that he got for his birthday:

Jared helped too.  We also tried out his new Crayola Glow Book, and it turned out to be as cool as I thought it would be--but it doesn't photograph well.  It makes these glowing pictures that move.  I want to try doing a picture of fireworks exploding sometime, but haven't had a chance yet.

Monday morning I had to get blood drawn--I have a physical scheduled for next week.  After that I checked on a sister who's husband had surgery that morning.  By the time I talked to her, he was out of surgery and in recovery.  He is home now and doing well.  I'm glad I checked on her, though--she had left her cane at home and really needed it, so I was able to go pick it up for her. 

After leaving the hospital, I went with three other women in my ward (well, one is in another ward now--actually, she's the RS president that I replaced) to go up to the church camp to help do some cleaning to prepare it for all the groups coming in this summer.  (Our stake and several other local stakes purchased a former Girl Scout camp up in Pennsylvania last year to use for Girls' Camp, Youth Conferences, Scout camp outs, etc.  We renamed the camp "Camp Liahona".)  It was raining most of the day so we got pretty wet.  All four of us had been up to the camp before but between the four of us we still managed to get lost on the way there so it took us longer to get there than we planned.  We were still able to sweep out a large pavilion, a latrine, and several platform tents before we had to head back home.  It was an enjoyable drive there and back, and fun to work with other women to talk to.  I was tired when I got home though, and had a bad headache that evening so Frank was a dear and made dinner.  I actually had a scratchy / sore throat from last Friday evening until about Tuesday, and I've had several headaches this week too.  But nothing too bad, and nothing that slowed me down much, thankfully.

The big news for Monday is that Frank got a job offer from Marriott!  He was actually told last Thursday that he was going to be offered a job, but he was still surprised when they called him to offer him the job because it wasn't the job he expected.  This job is a promotion--he'll be paid a little better and he will also be eligible to receive bonuses.  So we are feeling very grateful and blessed.  Frank was a bit in shock for a day or two.  Today he signed his acceptance papers.  He will switch over to this new position July 6th.  We are very happy that he is going to stay with Marriott--we weren't too excited about the switch to Xerox, although thankful that he had a job at all.

Tuesday morning I helped a sister in the ward "stage" her house.  (I was only doing what other people told me to do--I have no talent at that kind of thing.)  Remember the sister who was moving a few weeks ago?  Well, unfortunately the sale of her house fell through because the buyer couldn't get financing so now she needs to get her house back on the market.  Since houses that are staged sell better than completely empty houses, the Elders helped her move some of her furniture back over and I went to help make beds, put books on shelves, and things like that.  Hopefully she will find another buyer soon.

Tuesday afternoon I had book chat.  I finished the book on Sunday evening.  It was a very interesting book, although a little dark and not very happy.  I still enjoyed it a lot and so did everyone in my group--we had an interesting discussion about it.  Tuesday evening Frank went to help teach a new member discussion to a family in our ward--the mom was baptized in January and the dad and oldest daughter a few months later.  They are doing great.  The dad is into computers so he and Frank have become friendly.  Frank didn't get home until nearly 10:00--he sheepishly admitted that he and the dad had stood outside talking about computers for a long time after the discussion.

On Wednesday I had my eyes checked.  They gave me new contact lenses, and I am thrilled that I can actually see close up again, as well as far away.  I was really starting to feel "blind" when I had my contact lenses in.  I always had to choose between being able to see close up or being able to see far away.  Now I can work on my computer, read my scriptures, read my planner and my grocery lists, read food labels and recipe books, and even read the tiny numbers on the produce stickers at the grocery store!  It's been really nice.  I ordered new glasses too although I decided not to get bifocals for those.  It would have cost a lot more for those kind of lenses and I don't wear glasses enough to make it worth it.  If I need to read something when I am wearing them, I can just take them off.  They still cost me a pretty penny but I got some I really like and they should last a long time.  I also got the transitions lenses so when I need to put them on to take a kid somewhere I won't be blinded by the sun anymore.

Wednesday afternoon we had the Elders come over to help us move out our old couches.  They didn't have any couches in their new apartment so we let them have ours.  The new furniture wasn't scheduled to be delivered until today, but we had severe weather forecast for Thursday so we decided it would be better to move them when it wasn't raining and we could live without couches for a few days.  The living room looks very large and bare without them:
  

 

Unfortunately, it's going to look that way for heaven knows how much longer because when the furniture arrived this afternoon, all three pieces (both couches and the entertainment center) were damaged.  One couch had a big gouge on one of the supporting wood pieces, the other couch had a scratch on the leather, and the entertainment center had pieces that didn't fit together right and two gouges on one side.  We told them we paid way too much money to have them damaged at all and sent them all back.  I have no idea how long it is going to take to get replacements, but I suspect it is going to be more than a day or two.  Very frustrating! 

 

Meanwhile, yesterday we spent some time doing some cleaning in the basement.  We decided that we want to put the old entertainment center (which is really an armoire) downstairs by the back door for storage.  But since that area is currently filled with a lot of junk, we had some cleaning to do.  Jared and Frank took a big load of things to Goodwill and we threw out a bunch of stuff too.  We still have a lot of work to do down there before we are ready to move the armoire down, but it is looking better.  I took some "before" pictures, but I don't want to post them without some nice "after" pictures, so that will have to wait.  I'm really excited to get things cleaned out down there!  It's been really messy for about 6 years now.  I have been wanting to clean it that whole time.

 

Maybe you heard on the news that our part of the country got hit by some pretty strong storms yesterday.  We were fortunate and didn't get much where we are, though.  One storm came through in the morning.  It got so dark that it felt like it was almost night, which was weird.  We did get a lot of thunder and lightning, some wind and some heavy rain, but it was only for a short time and then it turned into light rain for a while. Things cleared up mid-day and then later in the afternoon it got all cloudy again.  We got a little more rain and wind, but not much to speak of--on the radar I could see that the worst part of the storm went south of us--they had tornado warnings in Montgomery County, which is the county just south of us.  I think we just caught the edge of that storm.  We did have a lot of rain off and on this week.  This morning it was windy and just a tad chilly.  It has really felt more like spring than summer most of this week (although Wednesday was sunny and quite hot).  Now it is sunny and a lot warmer--feels more like the last day of school should feel!

 

Yesterday was the last day of school for Tanner and Jared--the high school students don't have to go to school the last day unless they have a test to make up.  Today was the last day of school for Seth.  His class went to the park for a party.  They got out two hours early, so he was home by just after lunch time.  Tanner and Jared have spent most of the day at the church--all the Seminary kids wanted to have a party.  Tanner is at his last Driver's Ed class now.  He will probably go back over to the church when he is done with that.  Neither he nor Jared is going to be very happy when they find out there are no couches to sit on! 

 

This week has been a bit calmer and I've had a little time to relax (not a lot, but a little).  (Makes me wonder what might be coming next week, though.)  I didn't even have a presidency meeting this week, although I meant to.  We were supposed to have one yesterday but I messed up and told one of my counselors that it was on Wednesday.  We had decided to have it at her house and she even had lunch ready for us!  Then we didn't show up.  I felt really bad about that.  She couldn't meet yesterday so we will have to wait until Monday.  I will have a new secretary by then, so that will be nice. 

 

Well, on to summer vacation now.  I hope I can convince the boys to get a few productive things done in addition to the relaxing that I know they are hoping to do.  I'm looking forward to having a less structured schedule for a few months although I'm sure I'll still have lots of work to do.   

Weekly Review June 7 '13

I didn't take a single picture this week.  I would have taken some yesterday, but I forgot my camera.  Oh well!  Hopefully this post will be fairly short.  Not that we sat around doing nothing all week...but most of what we did isn't too notable.  I do think I got my wish from last week, though--this week wasn't quite so exhausting.  And I am even writing this post on Friday morning! 

While I'm writing I have eggs boiling.  I need to make a bunch of egg salad sandwiches for a RS activity tomorrow.  We usually have our meetings on Wednesday nights, but this time we are doing it on Saturday morning.  We are having a "Retro" activity with two classes--one on how to make pie crust and the other on making aprons--followed by a luncheon of finger sandwiches, jello salads, and pies.  We are also encouraging everyone to dress like June Cleaver and we are having contests to see who can make the best jello salad and who can make the best pie.  I did not come up with any of these ideas myself, but I'm getting a kick out of the whole idea.  (Except I have nothing to wear--I have the pearl necklace, but no dress or high heels to go with it.)  Hopefully it will go well and everyone will have fun and learn something.  We invited the YW to come, too.

Sunday was not very restful.  I had Ward Council, then regular church meetings, then a meeting to start planning an upcoming service project, then dinner (Frank cooked the whole thing--bless him!), then choir practice. (Did I mention that Jared has been coming to choir practice with me the last month?  He has, and he's been doing a good job.)  Then I went with Frank to a member's house so that he could look at her air conditioner which was not working to see if he could figure out what was wrong.  (This is the member we helped move last week.)  Luckily, he figured out what was wrong and it was an easy fix.  I think after that we had family night and I wrote to Scott.  By then it was after my bed time.

Monday morning I ran errands and did a food order.  Then I had presidency meeting that afternoon.  We were minus a secretary because my secretary just got called to be the new Primary president the day before.  I did know it was happening--as a matter of fact, I knew she was probably going to be called before she did!  But I was very, very sorry to lose her.  She's been a great secretary!  The new one hasn't been called yet, but hopefully this Sunday she will be.  Tanner started his Driver's Ed class after school on Monday.  He has it every weekday from 3:00-6:00 this week and next week.  He can walk there from school, thankfully, but so far that's only happened once because of heavy rain or in the case of Tuesday because he didn't go to school that day.  Why did he stay home Tuesday?  Because he wasn't feeling well, for one thing--he's been battling cold symptoms off and on.  But also because he had a paper to write and he hadn't been able to finish it Monday evening.  He procrastinated again and I would never have let him stay home to get caught up if he hadn't been feeling sick also.  I let him sleep in so he could get all rested up and then he worked on it until Driver's Ed.  He worked on it more afterwards but he was still up until midnight that night getting it done.  Guess who got to stay up with him?  At least I had a good book to read.  I'm hoping Tanner is just tired and that he will do better when school starts again this fall.  He's really been slacking off the last few weeks.

I think I got side tracked--for FHE activity on Monday Seth chose to play Mario Kart and we had creamsicles for treat.  I always know when summer vacation is almost here because I feel this compelling need to buy lots of popsicles!  I think I bought 6 or 7 different varieties on Monday.

I spent Tuesday morning at Seth's school doing volunteer accounting work.  That should be the last time for this year.  In the afternoon I got caught up on household chores and phone calls.  That evening one of my counselors and I went to visit two sisters who just moved into our ward.  One of them lives in walking distance from me--how cool!  Tuesday morning Frank had two interviews for Marriott jobs.  Although he has accepted an offer from Xerox, he would still prefer to stay with Marriott so he posted for a couple of their open positions.  He says he felt really good about one interview and the other one he thought went terrible.  Hopefully we will get official news on them next week.

Wednesday morning I went to the choral concert at Seth's school so I could hear his class sing a song.  He was actually kind of excited about it and talked about it a lot, so I felt like I should go.  After the concert, I got my hair done.  Then I went shopping at Wal-Mart.  By then the kids were almost home from school.  I made dinner and gathered up all the things Seth would need for field day the next day--water bottle, hat, sunscreen, etc.  That evening the boys had quorum activities for YM.  I was supposed to have my monthly meeting with the bishop but he hurt his back and couldn't be there.  I also helped cut out pieces for the aprons we are sewing at the activity tomorrow.  The girl in charge of the class is very talented and she picked out some really cute retro-looking fabrics.  I'm excited to make one of the aprons!  Oh, and the other thing that happened Wednesday evening is that I met the new missionaries and--surprise!--they are Elders.  They decided to send us a second set of Elders instead of Sisters at the last minute.  Nothing against the Elders, but I'm not too happy about it.  I had so many great ideas of things the sisters could do to help with the sisters in our ward.  Oh well...maybe someday we'll get sisters again.  I texted one of my counselors that evening "Whoa!  I can't believe they sent us another set of Elders instead of Sisters!"  Her reply: "Yup.  They're going to love the feminine hygiene products in the 72 hr kits!!"  That made me laugh out loud...we were asked to put together 72 hour kits for the new "sisters" and this counselor is the one who put them together.

Sometime on Tuesday I realized that our air conditioner wasn't working.  It had been running almost all day and the house wasn't getting cooler--as a matter of fact, it was getting warmer.  Frank looked at it when he got home and figured out that the fan in the outside compressor wasn't turning.  He called around trying to find a part and finally gave up and called an A/C place to come look at it.  They couldn't come until the next day but luckily our weather has not been nearly so hot this week.  As a matter of fact, it gets down into the 50s most nights so we were able to open some windows that night and it wasn't too hot.  We had visions of thousands of dollars being spent on a new air conditioner (our house is almost 21 years old after all) but thankfully when the guy came to look at it he discovered a very minor problem and the whole thing, including the fee for the service call, cost us less than $200.  Whew!  We were happy about that.

Thursday I got Seth off to school, wondering if they were really going to have field day since it was cloudy, somewhat chilly, and there was an 80% chance of rain...supposed to start in the morning and get heavier in the afternoon.  It turns out they did have field day--the rain came later than predicted so they were able to do most of the activities and only had to quit a little earlier than planned.  Meanwhile, I went to the temple that morning.  I was just able to squeak into the 10:00 session, which was nice since I haven't been able to do an endowment session for a while.  It's always so wonderful to be in the temple and I am always in awe about the great generosity of the plan the Father has for all his children.

My friend Paula Bergeson and her family have been in Virginia the last week and we had arranged to meet at the temple around 12:30.  After I finished the session, I knew I had extra time so I stayed in the Celestial room and read scriptures for a while.  Then I changed and put names on the prayer roll--I can always think of about 20 people who REALLY need it.  (The world is getting to be such a hard place to live, isn't it?)  The funny thing was, there was one sister in my ward that came to my mind...I put her name down not really knowing why, but then later that day I found out why and I was so glad I had followed that little prompting!  Anyway, after I came out of the temple I walked over to the visitor's center and ate my lunch on a bench outside while I waited for Paula to get there.  They were running a little late, but they made it and I enjoyed visiting with Paula for an hour or so before I had to head home.  We'll get to have a longer visit when I'm in Utah this summer.  I appreciated that she put forth the effort to see me!

It started to rain while I was driving home and got fairly heavy at times.  It's been raining off and on pretty much ever since--I think we are getting the outer edge of tropical storm Andrea.  I've been having trouble with my hearing for the last month or so and I've attempted to clean out my ears several times with little success.  My right ear in particular has been really bad and since swimming last Saturday I really haven't been able to hear much in that ear--it felt completely plugged up.  Yesterday afternoon I decided to try again and this time I just kept flushing it out, over and over again.  I went through nearly three sinkfulls of water without getting anything out but finally near the end of the third sink I was successful!  I can hear things that I had forgotten even made noise--like the tiny crinkling sounds a towel makes when you are wiping off your face.  So nice to be able to hear again. 

Last night I went visiting teaching with another sister in my ward whose companion couldn't go with her.  She was visiting a less active sister that I wanted to see anyway and I was really glad that when we got there, her daughter who just turned 18 was there too and joined us for our visit so I was able to get caught up with her and tell her that I just assigned her some visiting teachers as well.

Jared was up late finishing a project last night.  (Procrastination seems to run in the family, unfortunately.)  Tanner didn't get up in time for Seminary this morning so I took him to school.  (If it hadn't been raining hard, I would have made him walk!)  I got the budget caught up this morning and now I can move on to making sandwiches and jello salad.  For once, I am getting through my list rather quickly--which is good, since I have a lot on the list for today.

The other thing I've been doing in snatches here and there whenever I get a chance is to read the book we are reading for book chat.  I just got it from the library on Monday morning and I'm about half way through it's 400 pages.  It is a very fascinating story called The Thirteenth Tale.  It's almost a mystery, but better than most mysteries in my opinion.  I'm finding it particularly interesting because one of the main threads running through the story are two different twin relationships.  It's a little dark and maybe I'll be disappointed about how it all turns out in the end, but it's definitely entertaining me.

We are going into our last week of school now and I think I am even more ready for vacation than the kids are.  Next week on this day we'll be done.  :)
  

Weekly Review June 1 '13

Here I am, writing this post on Saturday night again.  I'm not sure I'm ever going to get this done on Friday again.  This week was just really busy.  I feel like I ran from one thing to another all day every day, and really haven't had any "down" time to speak of.  So I feel pretty tired.  I hope this coming week isn't quite so hectic.  (Not much chance of that, though.)

 

Sunday after I got back from choir practice Erin and her friend Dan came by for dinner.  We enjoyed visiting with them.  They were on their way back to a house in Deep Creek that a bunch of YSAs rented for Memorial Day weekend--they had gone back down to Virginia that morning because Dan had to give a talk at church.

 

For our Memorial Day, we were invited to another ward members' house for a cook out and for "Monday Home Evening" (They are new members and still learning all of the unique terms we use in the church.  I thought that was cute!)  They invited several families from the ward so there was quite a crowd but it was fun and there was lots of food.  (The missionaries and some neighbors were there too.)  We made strawberry banana ice cream and chocolate chip cookie bars for our contributions; both turned out really delicious.  We got lots of compliments on the ice cream.  The day was busy getting the ice cream made, doing laundry, and other household chores.  Frank and I went to five different stores looking for rock salt and finally had to give up and use regular salt instead (it still worked).  I guess no one makes home made ice cream anymore?!  Most places said they stock rock salt in the winter for putting on roads, but they don't stock it in the summer.  I finished reading Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker in between everything else.  After we got back home, I did a few things to get ready for Seth's birthday party and after he went to sleep, I wrapped his presents.  Tanner was working frantically all day on a school project that he procrastinated too long.  Jared & Frank actually went out to the cook out earlier to help cook but I stayed home with Tanner (and Seth) so that Tanner could work on his project some more.  We also came home a little earlier for the same reason.  He didn't get it completely done, even then, but hopefully he got enough done to get a decent grade on it.

 

Frank drove kids to Seminary on both Tuesday and Thursday because the mom that normally picks up our kids (and several others) was in Ireland all week.  That meant he didn't go in to work quite as early as usual those two days, so he was still home Tuesday when Seth woke up.  We told him earlier that he could open one present that morning so he did that--he also opened cards from us and from Scott.  Here's pictures: 

 



(He got a Cat Woman playset to go with all his Batman toys)

That morning I went into the school to watch him "walk around the sun"--a Montessori birthday tradition:

(The flashlight is the "sun"; the strips of paper on the floor have the names of the months of the year.  Seth carries the "earth".  He starts by the May strip and walks around one time for each year of his life to show that the earth has gone around the sun six times since the day he was born.)

He also got to bring in 3 special things to show and talk about--in the picture below he is showing his class mates his favorite book--Wild About Books:

They also looked at a time line we've made of his life which has a picture for each year.  I almost forgot about it this year and had to quickly pick a picture the night before and print it up here at home to add to the timeline!  Later in the day, at snack time, they had the special treats we brought in.  This year we brought in rice krispie treats.  I was super lame this year and I even bought those!  But it's a good thing because I really didn't have time to make anything homemade this week (besides the ice cream). 

After I left his school, I got a few necessary chores done at home and then I went to help pack a few boxes for a sister in our ward who had to move this week.  She had an offer on her house but wasn't sure until the last minute if it was really going to go through so it was hard for her to plan.  At that point, she still wasn't sure it was going to go through but she'd decided she'd better start packing in case it did.  Another sister and I packed up a lot of stuff in her son's room but I couldn't stay long because I had a few little things to do for Seth's party and I needed to shower still too.  The party was right after school and we picked up a few of his class mates to take to the party with us. 

I have to say that I enjoyed the lack of work I had to do for this party!  When we got there, they had everything ready for us, including this cool bin for all the presents:
 

Seth got to pick out a ball and he and his friends played with it while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive:

(Seth with friends Shade and Ryan)

Then they all watched a safety video and then we got to go into the first arena to play.  It was nice because there was no one else there except for us and our party guests.  The kids had a blast climbing, jumping, sliding, and going through the obstacle course: 
 

They also liked playing on the play equipment that was there for little kids:

 (Seth with friend Krish)

As the birthday child, Seth got to go into this thing called the cyclone--it mostly just blew air, but as you can see he enjoyed it.

The air hockey table was a big hit with all the kids too.  These are Seth's friends Luke, Eliza, Henry, and Javy (Jared & Tanner visible in the background).

Seth on the obstacle course

Me trying out the obstacle course

After about 40 minutes, we moved to the next arena which had an even bigger slide and a place to play basketball:

 Jared enjoyed slam dunking! 

We all tried out the big slide:

 Frank

 Jared

 Tanner

As the birthday Mom, I got a free 3 minute massage in the massage chair.  It was quite nice!

Now I'm on the big slide

And Seth tried it too.

Tanner and Seth have worn themselves out!

All the kids!  Back row: Luke, Eddie, Paul, Henry, Ryan, Shade, Camilla.  Front row: Javy, Liam, Seth, Eliza, and Krish.  Notice they all look sweaty and pink cheeked!  They played hard!

After another 40 minutes we moved into the party room for cake, pizza, and presents.  Here's the cake:

Seth got to sit in this big inflatable throne while they sang Happy Birthday to him.  (The crown is inflatable too, and he got to keep it.  It says "Guest of Honor" on it.  He loved the crown!)

Blowing out candles

Eating pizza.  His friend Javy is one of the brothers that we car pool to school with.

Opening a card, above and below--opening presents:

The party helpers served all the food, cut the cake, and even made a list of the presents and who gave them.  It was nice because I got to take lots of pictures.  I was so busy taking pictures that I didn't get much time to eat, though!

I think everyone had a great time.  It was nice to come home and not have anything to clean up (except packaging from presents).  Jumping around on all that stuff was fun, but it's easy to get injured.  Tanner got "burns" on his knees.  Frank kept complaining for the few days afterwards about how sore he was!  I didn't do as much as Frank so I didn't have sore muscles but I did have a small injury.  I went down a slide and Seth forgot the rules and came down after me before I got out of the way.  I was just putting my hands down to push myself up from a sitting position when he came down and slammed his feet into my right wrist, which caused my right hand to bend in a way that it shouldn't.  I was very thankful he wasn't heavier because I think he easily could have broken my wrist if he had been bigger.  As it was, it hurt a little right at first but then I forgot about it until a few hours after we got home when it started to feel tender.  It never got very bad, but it's been a little sore all week, especially if I need to pick something up or if I bend my hand in a certain way.  It's actually the back of my hand that's been hurting, not my wrist.  It was the worst on Wednesday but felt quite a bit better on Thursday, thankfully.  It's still not completely back to normal but it gets a little better every day.

I was really pleased with most of the presents Seth was given at this party.  He didn't get a bunch of loud, obnoxious toys!  He got a lot of art things and Lego sets, which I love.  After we got home, Jared and Tanner helped him build his three new Star Wars Lego sets:

 He's been enjoying the new things to play with all week.  One of the coolest things he got was this set to make a cardboard / plastic robot toy.  First you color all the pieces and decorate them with stickers, then you build it into a robot that you can play with.  We haven't got to the building part yet, but here is Seth working on some of the coloring (the head):

 Playing with Lego sets:

 Playing with a dart gun:

Here is Seth with all the gifts from his party:

Here he is showing off his favor "bag" (it's actually a water bottle), with a few goodies inside:

Here he is with all the gifts from us:

 

I admit I got that Crayola glow book thing for him because I thought it looked really cool and I want to play with it!  But neither Seth nor I have had time to play with it yet.  He also received a card from Grandma & Grandpa but he hasn't had a chance to spend the money they sent him yet.  All in all, he was thoroughly spoiled and I think he had a great birthday!

 

Wednesday I got shopping done.  A sister in my ward came over to get quiet book patterns from me--they sat next to us at church the Sunday before and they loved Seth's quiet book.  I visited with her for quite a while.  I prepared for our presidency meeting that night but then we didn't have it because we decided the sister in our ward who was moving needed our help instead.  (We didn't feel right about sitting in a meeting talking about how to help the sisters in our ward when one had such an obvious immediate need!)  I actually didn't go to help that night because of my hand but my two counselors did help.  I stayed home and wrestled with visiting teaching changes all evening, but didn't make a lot of progress.

 

Tanner went to the Drama Club Awards ceremony that night.  Jared was going to go but decided to help with a service project doing yard work for a ward member instead.  There wasn't any YM activity that night because we had a Ward Talent Show last night and the YM and YW were in charge of running the whole thing. 

 

Thursday I took kids to the library at school, went grocery shopping, did laundry  and some cleaning, and tried to work on visiting teaching stuff but didn't get very far.  I took Jared to an orthodontist appointment right after school and then we went straight from there to help with cleaning at the house of the moving ward member.  A bunch of other people helped her earlier that day to move most of her belongings from the old house to the new one.  Jared and I came home long enough to eat dinner; then I went back over to help some more.  Our whole presidency came and we were hoping to have a meeting of sorts while we helped but we ended up just helping with the move and didn't really get a chance to talk.  By then she mostly just needed cleaning done and a bunch of things hauled away to the dump but her renters in the basement, who are also in our ward, were still trying to move things out so we helped them too.  A few other ward members came over to help but we were all there until about 10:00 before everything got done.  The walk through was supposed to be the following morning but the buyer's lender messed up and didn't have all the paperwork done so the lender asked to have it put off a week.  Oh well!  At least she has everything moved and can start settling into her new house.  Both her and her renters moved to new places within our ward boundaries so we're glad we're not losing them.

 

That afternoon while Jared and I were gone, Tanner was doing the sound for the Senior Awards Ceremony at the school.

 

Yesterday I got the budget done and then worked on visiting teaching changes and finally got it all figured out.  Tanner had a sore throat and stayed home from school.  Jared went to help with the Ward Talent Show--he ended up being the emcee.  Frank dropped him off and then I went over a little later to put all the visiting teaching changes into the computer.  When I finished, I went into the talent show--in time to catch the very last act.  We helped clean up and came home.

 

Today has been busy too.  I met with the visiting teaching supervisor this morning to tweak a few final changes and then print up all the new assignment slips.  Frank and I went on a walk and Frank cleaned the kitchen floor for me.  This afternoon Frank went to help do the cooking for an event while I took Seth to a swimming party for a friend at school.  I decided to wear my swim suit too and I'm glad I did because it was really hot and getting in the pool was very refreshing!  I was pretty tired by the time I got home, though.  Seth and I both needed to clean up after that.  They were fortunate the weather warmed up so much this week--last week end it was quite chilly!

 

Now it is late and I have to get up really early for Ward Council, so I'd better get to bed. I hope that at least one night this coming week I don't collapse into bed exhausted at the end of the day!  Wish me luck.