Weekly Review November 29 '13

It was a busy, crowded week but I will try to keep this short by summarizing, instead of giving you a play-by-play account of what we did. 

 

Monday and Tuesday we were really busy getting ready for our trip.  Frank worked from home since we had to take the Prius in to the body shop on Monday morning.  You never know how much you take two cars for granted until you are down to one!  But we are grateful to have one.  We are still waiting on the verdict of the appraisal. 

 

Meanwhile, Seth had half days of school on both Monday and Tuesday, because of parent teacher conferences.  They aren't having parent teacher conferences at the high school anymore so the older boys had full days of school as usual...you can guess they weren't too thrilled about that!  Seth went in 4 hours late on Monday and got out 3 1/2 hours early on Tuesday. 

 

I kept busy getting laundry and packing done, plus wrapping up some RS stuff such as getting another food order done.  I went to Seth's parent teacher conference.  He is doing well overall, especially academically.  I was more concerned about his behavior--asked his teachers about his ability to focus, since he seemed to have so much trouble doing that in soccer.  They confirmed that he does have trouble focusing, and doesn't get nearly as much done as he should because of that.  (I asked if he has more trouble focusing than most boys his age, and they said yes...he definitely does.)  So we are keeping an eye on that situation.  We might have another one with ADD, I suppose.  We talked about a few things we can do at home to try to help him, and we'll see how it goes.

 

Seth's new glasses came in on Monday and we picked them up on Tuesday.  Doesn't he look cute in them?  

 

We think he looks like Ammon when he has them on.  He hasn't worn them much yet but hopefully we will convince him to wear them more often as time goes by. 

Tuesday was also Tanner's 17th birthday.  He and Jared ended up being late getting home from school because Tanner was talking to his counselor...making sure his transcript and letter of recommendation got sent to BYU before Sunday, since that is the priority deadline for applying.  (Hopefully he'll get his essays written by Sunday...he hasn't done them yet.)  Anyway, it was cold and raining hard all day.  When Tanner and Jared finally made it home, Tanner opened presents.  Remember his trip to NYC to see Big Fish was his present...we just got him cards and a couple of other small things like a mini Etch-a-Sketch. 

He really liked the book that Grandma & Grandpa sent him...he's been reading it over vacation and just finished it this morning.

After that, we finished packing up the car and then we all climbed in and left for North Carolina.  (We had dropped Snickers off earlier in the day...he is staying with two women in our ward who are sisters.  They have watched him a couple of times and always take good care of him.)

The weather going down was not ideal, but it was better than predicted.  We only had about a 4 hour drive that day...we had a hotel booked in Roanoke Virginia.  It was super cold and it rained really hard all the way down.  I am so glad Frank is willing to drive in that kind of weather because I hate driving in heavy rain and combine that with driving in the dark, and I consider that torture!  But Frank handles it much better than I do, and thankfully we arrived safely at our hotel.  It was a Residence Inn, so we had a large room with a kitchenette and sitting area.  It was really nice to spread out a little!  Thanks to Frank's employee discount and a special deal that is going on right now where we get half off the normal employee rate, the room cost less than a meal.

The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Brevard, about another 4 hours.  It was still very cold but no rain.  It did snow a little, and as we drove through the mountains it was foggy:

The boys enjoyed watching movies on the portable DVD player, as well as reading (Seth is showing off Tanner's new book), playing games, listening to music, and playing with Tanner's Etch-a-Sketch:

We got to our hotel in the early afternoon, checked in, and then went to Frank's parent's house to visit.  While we were there, we also made two cheesecakes, two chocolate cream pies, and some sweet potato casserole. 

Unfortunately, there is not a Marriott in Brevard, so we are staying at the Holiday Inn Express.  It is pretty nice, we just miss the employee discounts! 

Yesterday morning, we went back to Frank's parent's house to make layered banana pudding.  Then we packed a lot of food into the cars and took it all over to the church, where we were meeting the rest of the family for Thanksgiving dinner.  Frank's sister Dawn and her husband were visiting some of his family so we didn't get to see them on this trip but his sister Becky and her family, his brother James, and his sister Gladys and her twin babies were all there, plus some family friends as well.  We had a good group and there was lots of good food.  We basically hung out all day, eating, visiting, and playing games.

Gladys's babies are so cute!  They both took naps in the afternoon.

 

Jazmyn

 



(They're watching a movie.)

 

Nikolas

 

Frank's mom got a birthday cake as a surprise for Tanner:

 



 

Jazmyn warmed up to Frank after a while.  She touches your ear when she is getting tired!

 

 

A couple of the friends that had been invited for Thanksgiving were recent converts to the church.  It was really cool to hear their conversion stories!

 

Later that evening the sister missionaries who are serving in Brevard stopped by.  It was fun to talk to them about missionary work in the area!  We found out that mission boundaries have been changed recently and Brevard is now part of the Tennessee Knoxville mission instead of the North Carolina Charlotte mission.  One of the sisters is from Orem, Utah--went to Orem High.  She is an identical twin and her twin is serving in Atlanta, Georgia.  Kind of crazy how much we have in common!  We stayed at the church pretty late and all came home tired and went right to bed.

 

This morning we hung out at the hotel, getting laundry done.  Then we went back to the church for more visiting.  We stopped at Frank's parent's house for a while longer, then got some dinner on our way back to the hotel.  We are planning to leave by 9:00 in the morning so that we can get home around dinner time.  It was a little warmer today (high 40's) which was nice for a change.  I guess it is colder at home, though.

 

We were sorry to hear about Dad's rotten Thanksgiving, but glad that he is doing better now and home from the hospital.  Frank's parents send their love!  We will keep you in our prayers, Dad.      

 

Weekly Review November 22 '13

Things got back to "normal" this week...meaning I was swamped with stuff to do.  No big crises or anything, just lots of visits and trying to make sure the ward members have places to go for Thanksgiving, and that they have what they need. 

The boys had their three performances of Willy Wonka on Saturday, so as I expected we didn't see them all day and they got home very late.  I fell asleep before they got home, as a matter of fact.  We didn't end up painting furniture for Tanner's Eagle project because the weather didn't cooperate.  Although Saturday was fairly pleasant, it rained the night before and things didn't dry out enough to do outdoor painting.  I know we kept busy all day, but I can't remember what we did now, other than we went to a friend's house to watch the BYU football game, which we enjoyed of course since BYU won.  They had really good food for us to eat too. 

Sunday I was super busy and wasn't home much of the day.  I had Ward Council before church and after church I had a visit and then choir practice.  By the time I got home from all of that, Frank had dinner on the table and then we had family night.  My visit was to a young adult woman who was just baptized a few weeks ago.  It was fun to get to know her better and she is quite a wise young woman in many ways.

Did that say November 22nd up there?  Well, now it's the 24th.  I meant to get back to this sooner, but the craziness has continued.  Where do I even start?  I had to stop writing on Friday because it was time for me to leave to go pick up a sister in our ward who needed a ride from work to pick up her daughter (from her dad's house) and then back to her home.  (More about her later.)  Since that was going to be a fairly long drive, I asked Tanner if he wanted to come with me and do the driving, so he could get in some driving hours.  He agreed, and we set out...and on the way to the sister's work, we hit a deer!  We were going up the main freeway that runs through Frederick and we were almost to our exit when I saw a deer on the shoulder.  It was dark, so Tanner hadn't seen it yet.  All I had time to say was "that's a deer!" before the deer had stepped out right in front of us.  Tanner hit the brakes and swerved, but there was not enough time to stop, and I think the deer walked into his swerve (it all happened so fast that I'm not sure exactly what happened) so we hit it.  A pretty decent thump, but the airbags didn't deploy or anything.  We and the deer ended up in the left shoulder (thank goodness no one was in the left lane at the time).  Tanner and I were not hurt at all, but the sad thing was that the deer was hurt, but didn't die.  We were sitting there waiting for Frank and for the police to come, and the whole time we were watching this poor animal suffer.  It did a couple of spectacular flips, and then laid down on one side with its eyes closed, sides heaving.  Tanner felt so remorseful, even though it wasn't his fault, and I felt terrible too.  We were really surprised, though, when after a while the deer opened its eyes, and then lifted up its head.  It stayed that way for several minutes and then to our even greater surprise, it got up and ran back across the highway (thankfully no cars were coming this time) and jumped over the guardrail.  Its back left leg was dragging...I'm sure it was broken...but it did just fine on three legs.  For the deer's sake, I hope it had some internal injuries and has died by now...otherwise, it must be suffering from that broken leg.

Anyway, meanwhile Frank arrived and then the police.  The front of the Prius is pretty smashed up.  The bumper is fine, other than one dent, but the hood is bent up a lot.  The car still runs...the engine seems fine and no fluids are leaking or anything like that...so maybe it won't be a total loss?  We will have to wait for the appraisal to find out.  We have to take it in tomorrow to have that done.  Here's some pictures:

 

 (Yes, that is deer hair.)

 

So what do you think?  Maybe we'll get to keep the car?  I've had more than one person say that after an accident like that the car is never the same so it's sometimes better if it's a total loss, but I'm not so sure.  No time for car shopping, and I really don't want to start over on a car loan yet again...but I guess if we have to, we'll deal with it.  We're fortunate it wasn't worse.  The deer we hit wasn't very large so we were lucky there.  Tanner seems to be doing ok.  He didn't want to drive home after that, but today he asked to drive again.  We've assured him that things like this happen and there really wasn't anything he could have done to prevent it.

As for the rest of the week, Frank was busy doing maintenance and taking care of emergencies for clients, along with his regular job too, of course.  I had a long list of RS related tasks that I was trying to work through.  I also had visits, both RS and visiting teaching, as well as food orders I was trying to get done.  A few appointments fell through and I've had to try to reschedule.  I had a presidency meeting Wednesday, PEC this morning before church, and missionary correlation meeting after church.  Every day on my planner is crammed with writing, trying to fit in all the many things that needed to be done.  I went to bed late and woke up early every day...and sometimes didn't sleep very well in between.  It's been exhausting!  Besides all the RS stuff, I had book chat on Tuesday, took Tanner to an appointment Wednesday, Jared to the orthodontist on Thursday, and of course tried to keep up with all the regular things like laundry.  (By the way, no one at book chat liked the book we read either!)  We had my car in to the shop to be fixed on Monday and Tuesday...we're poorer now but it sounds a lot better. 

On Friday I spent a lot of the morning with a sister in our ward who needed some help with transportation because her car had overheated.  I picked her up from her house, took her to her car to meet the tow truck (we had to wait nearly an hour for that), followed the truck to the mechanic, and then took her to work.  Then I went back later to pick her up from work (that's when we hit the deer).  I've mentioned this sister before...she is less active and up until this week I had not met her but had exchanged several text messages with her.  It was great to finally meet her!  We had some long conversations while we waited and drove around, and I'm hoping that someday soon she will be ready to come back to church.  She is really a great person and has dealt with a lot of tough things with a lot of courage.  Unfortunately, the problems with her car are serious...so expensive to fix that getting another car would be a better option.  After I finally made it to her work (after hitting the deer) and we were on our way to pick up her daughter, we passed another accident where a car was actually lodged in the branches of a tree next to the road!  I said "Wow, someone else is having a worse day than we are!" and we both laughed.

Frank and I decided last week that we wanted to go out on a date on Friday, and in spite of all the craziness, that's what we did.  The kids were out of school 2 hours early on Friday so after everyone got home we went to an afternoon movie and then to dinner.  We saw Ender's Game, which I enjoyed (I never have read the book, so I didn't have a book to compare it to).  It was a nice break that we both needed!

Tanner and Jared have been trying to get caught up in school after being consumed by the play.  Tanner worked on Calculus all day yesterday and wasn't too happy about that.  He was sick on Thursday so I had him work on some of it that day too.  He is still struggling with Seminary attendance but we're hoping after he has some more recuperation time he will do better.  There was an event at the school on Tuesday that he did light and sound for, and he had a rehearsal for that on Monday. 

Yesterday was really busy too--more RS stuff (lots more), we watched the BYU game (sad!) and we had the Elders over for dinner.  When they were leaving, one of our neighbors (across the street; we've never met him) stopped them and asked them what they do.  When they explained, he said he was looking for a church and wanted to know when ours met. How often does that happen?!  He was going to come to church with us today but he wasn't feeling well.  We'll see if he comes another week.

The weather was super nice on Monday...we even had our windows open!  Most of the week was somewhat mild, even yesterday wasn't all that cold but today that changed dramatically.  We had a high in the 30's and it was really windy too.  We even saw a few snowflakes drifting down.  Brrrrr!!!

Today the boys had a song practice and then BYC after church, Jared and I went to choir practice, and Tanner went to a missionary prep class.  Now it is late evening and we need to have family night.  The next few days are going to be super busy too but then hopefully we will get a few days of relative rest as we go to NC for Thanksgiving.  We do have a lot to be thankful for!   

Weekly Review November 15 '13

We haven't seen a lot of Tanner and Jared this week.  Last Friday, they both stayed after school to work on hanging lights for the play.  There was also a bonfire and fireworks at their school for homecoming weekend.  Jared went to those; Tanner continued to work on lights.  They both got home late that night.  They worked on the lights for 5 or 6 more hours on Saturday.  Then on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they stayed after school to work on sound and to help with rehearsals (except Jared was able to come home Tuesday afternoon) and each of those nights got home between 9:30 and 11:00.  Yesterday they were able to come home from school at the usual time but had to be back at the school at 5:00 for a performance and didn't get home until late.  Today will be the same as yesterday.  Then tomorrow they have 3 performances, so we don't expect to see them at all tomorrow.  After that the play is done, though.  I will be glad, and I think they will be too.

 

Saturday was a typical crazy day.  Frank was helping with the cooking for a wedding.  Jared helped with sorting for the annual "Scouting for Food" drive.  While he was there, I took Tanner to buy a tie--he doesn't have very many and he wanted a new one for the Homecoming dance that night.  Then they were both at the school working until dinner time.  Meanwhile, I walked, cleaned the kitchen floor, took Seth to his last soccer game (his team lost, 3-0), and got dinner ready--we had the missionaries over for dinner too. 

 

Jared was going to Homecoming with a group of friends.  In my day, Homecoming and Prom and other dances like that were attended only by couples, but now everyone goes--a lot of the kids go "stag".  So after dinner I drove Jared over to meet his friends and then took Tanner to pick up his date.  They met up with another couple and we went over to a little gazebo to take some pictures.  It was hard to get good pictures, since it was dark, but here are a few:

  

Frank did the late night runs to pick up the boys after the dance, and to take Tanner's date back home (she lives about 20 minutes away).  So did Tanner have fun?  Well, sort of.  He and his date (Alivia) have been friends for a long time and went on another date once a long time ago.  They were going to the dance just as friends.  He wasn't expecting her to hang all over him or anything, but she mostly ignored him for a lot of the evening, focusing on the other couple that they were with.  A few days after the dance, he tried to talk to her about it and the result of those conversations was that she decided that they can't be friends anymore.  She really hurt his feelings, and he is bummed about it but seems to be getting over it.  Just one of those things that happens when you are in your teens!  It's too bad.

Sunday wasn't quite as hectic, thankfully--I didn't have any extra meetings before or after church, so I actually had a short nap.  Jared and I did go to choir later, and we had family night, and I got to talk to Amy for the first time in months.

The rest of the week has not been too bad, either.  Things have continued to be calmer...no crises in our ward lately.  I don't expect that to last much longer, although it would be nice (for everyone, not just me) if it did.  Monday I made two loaves of banana bread and set up a lot of appointments.  Tuesday I thought I had book chat but when I got there no one was there.  So I texted my friend (it's at her house) and she said "it's next week."  I found out the next day that nearly everyone else showed up after I left (they were late)...so she was actually the one who was mixed up, not me.  Anyway, now we are having it this Tuesday since we didn't have it last Tuesday.

One of the sets of Elders came over Tuesday afternoon to help Frank with my car.  It's been making noise and one of the Elders is really good with cars, so he asked him to help him figure out what it is.  They determined that the muffler is cracked, so we need to get it in to get a new muffler before our trip to North Carolina next week.  It was super cold on Tuesday, by the way...cold, and really windy too.  It was a miserable day to be outside at all.  Wednesday was pretty nasty too but yesterday it started to warm up a little and this weekend is supposed to be in the 50's and 60's, which will be nice.

Wednesday I went to the temple.  The traffic wasn't cooperative, so I missed the 10:00 session and did initiatories instead.  It was nice.  That evening we had our monthly RS meeting...we talked about eating healthy on a budget.  We had four different sisters present different ideas and I feel like I learned a lot and I'm feeling really motivated to do a better job at eating healthier.  One of the sisters is going to send out some recipes which I am excited to try.

Yesterday I got my hair done.  Frank and Seth both had eye appointments.  Seth had his vision screened at school and he failed the test, so they sent a note home.  This wasn't a big surprise since none of our kids have made it past 3rd grade without needing glasses.  His right eye is only slightly off, but his left eye is pretty bad.  In spite of the fact that we have really good vision insurance (thankfully!) we still end up spending hundreds of dollars every time we go to the eye doctor so I was pleasantly surprised this time to discover that our insurance covered the eye exam and all of the glasses for Seth...all we had to pay for was the optional insurance coverage that we got on his glasses, which considering how young he is we thought it would be wise to get that.  Frank only had to pay the co pay for his exam...there will be more later when he orders his contacts, but our insurance covers a generous portion of that too.  (We feel really blessed, since everyone in our family needs glasses now, and five of us wear contact lenses.)  Seth picked out some glasses...Frank and I both liked another frame more than the one he picked out, but in the end, he is the one who needs to be happy with them.  He doesn't want to have glasses at all, but hopefully I'll be able to convince him to wear them!

On the way home from the eye exams, we stopped at a little temporary place to get some gyros--this little stand gets set up for a weekend about twice a year and they are really yummy!  We dropped some gyros off at the school for Tanner and Jared also.

This morning I volunteered in Seth's class...I listened to about 20 kids read.  (And helped them when they needed it.)  It was kind of fun.  Now I'm trying to get as much done as possible before all the kids come home.  We have another busy weekend ahead, including cleaning the church, painting outdoor furniture for Tanner's Eagle scout project, and watching the BYU football game, among other things. 

I finished the book chat book last week and I'm still not sure it was worth reading.  I did enjoy it in some ways, but overall it was pretty depressing.  I picked up another book at the library and read that this week...it's a collection of columns a guy wrote for a British newspaper about life in America.  He is American himself but lived in England for about 20 years and then came back to America shortly before writing the columns.  I enjoyed the book...although I can tell I don't agree with many of his political views, a lot of what he said was good and it was laugh out loud funny a lot of the time.

Remember how last week I said I should take a camera with me on one of my walks?  Well, I did that on Monday so here are a few pictures I took:
 

If I go south up the walking trail, I get this view of the Monocacy River.

If I go all the way to the end of the walking trail, I get to this farm land.

Going back the other way up the trail, I can see our house. 

Snickers enjoys these walks!

Going north up the trail, these are the views of the Monocacy River.

Beautiful, right?  I am very lucky to have this kind of view just 2 or 3 minutes from my house!

We hope everyone is well and that Mom had a very happy birthday yesterday!

Weekly Review November 8 '13

I've just been out for a walk with the dog.  It is windy and cold (but not terribly so) and there are a million leaves blowing all over the place.  Now that the leaves are falling from the trees, the river is a lot more visible than it was a few weeks ago.  It's really quite lovely--I should have brought a camera with me on my walk.  Maybe I'll remember next time--I'm trying to take the dog on longer walks at least 3 or 4 times a week.  That's more for me than for him...I'm trying to get some exercise. 

 

On that note...I was playing some bowling on the Wii earlier this week (not really great exercise, but better than sitting around doing nothing, right?) and I came so close to having a perfect game!  I got 10 strikes in a row.  Then on my first extra ball I only got 9 of the 10 pins...so sad!  I really wanted that "stamp" for a perfect game.  (I've earned all the other stamps.)  I doubt I'll ever come that close to it again.  Oh well!

 

We are having bi-polar weather lately.  Some days have actually been quite mild.  Other days are pretty cold (although I haven't pulled out my coat yet).  We've had smatterings of rain here and there, gloomy cloudy days and bright sunny days.  A lot of days it even switches half way through...yesterday morning was overcast but mild, by afternoon the sun had come out but the temperature had dropped and it was windy.  It's all beautiful in its own way, though.

 

This week was a nice reprieve from the usual "busy-ness" for me.  The weekend was crazy, but after that things have settled down and I actually had a whole afternoon of free time yesterday.  On Saturday Frank went to help cook for an event, then met me at Seth's soccer game at 12:30, and then went back to help cook some more.  It was a nice day so watching the game was pleasant.  Seth decided to play again and he even played goalie for awhile and actually stopped the ball from going into the goal once!  It was another close game, but I think his team won by a goal or two.  I had my lesson to figure out, made a cake for Jared, printed up new VT slips, went for a walk, and cleaned the kitchen floor.  That afternoon / evening, we let Jared have some friends over for pizza and birthday cake.  One set of missionaries joined us for dinner, too.  Here's a few pictures:

 

 (I forgot to buy candles...that's why he only has a few on his cake.)

I think everyone had fun and the Elders gave a good message, too.

Sunday I had Ward Council before church.  My lesson went fine, thank goodness.  After church we had a little quiet time, then Jared and I went to choir practice.  After we got home, Erin & Dan came for dinner.  We enjoyed visiting with them, as well as with Anna, Buck & June for a little while via Google Hangout.  We were going to try to talk with Erick & Liz too but that didn't work out.  While we were talking with Anna & family, Dan and Seth were playing with dinosaurs (June was playing with some at her house, which prompted Seth to go get some of his out.):

As you know, Sunday we went off daylight savings time, so this week we've been adjusting to lighter mornings and darker evenings.  One morning when I took Snickers out, I looked down the street to my left and saw this:

The morning sunlight on that golden-leaved tree was spectacular!  I had to go back in and get my camera!  The picture is ALMOST as good as it looked in real life.

I'm surprised looking back over the week that I actually did quite a bit for RS.  I didn't think I had as much to do this week, but maybe I did.  On Monday I helped prepare lunch for a meeting for half of the missionaries in our mission.  There was a general authority touring the mission and he wanted to have a meeting with all the missionaries (they divided it up into two meetings).  I helped make about 160 sandwiches!  On Tuesday I did a food order and that evening I had my monthly meeting with the bishop.  Wednesday morning I had a presidency meeting. 

Frank has been pretty busy with his business this week.  He also volunteered to go over to the church for a couple of hours on Tuesday...it was being used as a polling place and they needed a priesthood holder in the building at all times.  (We did both vote...I need to go online to find out who won the local election, though.  I actually haven't heard the results!)

Wednesday evening for YM they had a Court of Honor.  I thought they did a nice job...they had pictures of each of the boys that they put up when they got their awards.  Jared is still about a month shy of being able to get his Life rank, so neither of our boys got a rank advancement but they both received a couple of merit badges.  They are both so close to being completely done with merit badges...I will be happy when we get to that point!

Did I mention before that Tanner was accepted into the National Honor Society?  Well, he was, and the induction ceremony for that was last night.  Frank and I attended the ceremony.  Here is Tanner afterwards:

There were about 60 kids inducted into the society last night, and as they each walked across the stage they said a few things about them.  It was a really impressive group!  So many of them were doing community service.  Several of the boys were involved in scouts and a lot of the kids were doing service through their churches.  After the ceremony, they had cake and punch. 

That is about all we did this week, so I guess this will be a short one!  In between all those events, we worked on the usual household chores, I helped with homework, Tanner & Seth got haircuts, and I've been reading more of my book for book chat.  I'm not sure how I feel about the book...it's well written but the story is getting more and more tragic as I go.  This morning I returned 2 pair of pants to KMart...we ordered a pair for Tanner via the internet and they have sent us the wrong size (34 x30 instead of 30x34) three times!!  Even after Frank called and explained the problem, twice.  Three strikes, you're out...I'm not ordering any more pants from them.  What a hassle!

Tomorrow is going to be really busy again, but it's been nice to have a few less hectic days.

 

Weekly Review November 1 '13

I'm going to make up for the lack of pictures lately...there are lots of pictures this week!  We had a busy week, too.  Last Saturday was a little ridiculous...we had things going on all day long.  The day started early because Tanner was taking the ACT, which started at 8:00.  He finished around noon.  Meanwhile, Dad and I made a pot of chili and a pan of cornbread for the ward chili cook off which was later that day.  Then we took Seth to his soccer game.  Seth had a stubborn streak and refused to play but we told him he had to at least go support his team by cheering them on, so we all went.  Frank missed most of the game because he had to go pick up Tanner, but Seth and I stayed for the whole game.  It was cold and windy, so not very pleasant to be sitting outside.  Both teams played well and were pretty evenly matched, but in the end Seth's team scored a few more points than the other team. 

 

We barely had time to get home and eat before we had to pack everybody up again to go to Tanner's Eagle scout project.  Frank had committed a while back to help cook for a wedding so he didn't come with us...he left shortly after we did to go cook.  We took two of the priests with us and I wasn't sure if we'd get anybody else to help...lots of people had conflicts...but three more men came and brought along some or all of their kids, so we ended up having a decent group to help, although not as big as last week.  I expected that we would get done early since all we had to do was plant a few plants and spread mulch, and we did finish a little early--but it took a lot longer than I expected so we finished only about a half hour early.  Here are pictures of work in process and the finished product:

 

(Seth checks out the snacks we brought for the workers.)

The big pile of mulch!  We ended up with more mulch than we needed, so we had to take some extra time to move all the unused mulch to a different place.

Seth stepped on the end of a rake and the handle popped up and hit him in the head!  See the lump on his forehead?  It was huge!

Seth also got filthy from playing in the dirt, eating chips, and drinking hot chocolate.

The farm where the project was located is beautiful!

 End result:

Watering the new plants before we go:

Our helpers for the day.  One other man and his two boys came, but they left before we took the picture:

 By the time we finished up and got on the road, we barely had time to get home and clean up a little before we had to be at the church for the ward chili cook-off.  I probably wouldn't have gone at that point except that I was in charge of judging the chili.  I had two other friends help me.  There were about 15 pots of chili, and after sampling a little bit of each one of them, I was full!  They were all good but a few stood out and it was fun to pick the winners.  I was more than happy to get home after that, though.  Glad I wasn't in charge of clean up...it was nice to leave when I was ready to leave!  The activity was very successful, by the way.  Tons of people came, including several non members and less active members.  Frank didn't get home until after we did...by then, I was ready for bed!

Sunday was pretty busy too.  I had PEC before church...the bishop has asked me to attend that meeting now too.  The choir sang two songs in sacrament meeting.  I had visits after church, then choir practice, then we had family night.  When I go to meetings, I always come away with a list of things to do, so by evening I was feeling kind of stressed and overwhelmed.  Plus there had been a discussion in RS that I wasn't all that comfortable with.  I think it ended up ok in the end but I wish it hadn't happened at all.  Oh, and I found out a couple in our ward was splitting up, and I was pretty distressed about that too.  Sometimes being the RS President stinks. :(

I forgot to mention that I missed a baptism on Saturday, while I was at Tanner's Eagle project.  A young adult girl named Rose was baptized...I sent one of my counselors to give her the official welcome to RS.  I'm actually slightly (very slightly) responsible for her joining the church...I sent the missionaries in our ward over to see a less active sister.  She wasn't home, but Rose lives with her and Rose answered the door, let the missionaries in, and started talking to them.  Cool, right?!

Monday was Jared's 15th birthday.  Jared opened his presents after Frank got home (a new Batman game for the Xbox and a sonic screwdriver--a Dr. Who thing, for those of you who aren't fans) and we had the missionaries over for dinner.  I let Jared pick what we were eating.  We aren't doing his cake until tomorrow--he's having some friends over for pizza and cake--but Seth had the family night treat and he wanted cake, so we had chocolate cake with the missionaries.  Later, we let Jared play his new game for an hour or so.  Here's some photos of him opening presents and cards: 

 I was working on Seth's Halloween costume that day, and decided to stay up until I got the main part of it done (the tail and sewing plates to the back of the jacket), so I was up until around midnight.  I did get the really essential parts done--with the exception of hand sewing the "spikes" onto the tail--that night and I sewed the spikes on Tuesday morning.  When I looked at the pattern to decide if I was going to attempt to sew the shoe covers, I discovered that they weren't shoe covers at all--they were whole feet pieces that were supposed to attach to the costume (which I didn't make) and they looked like a lot of work.  The hands looked complicated too so I decided at that point I would just use purchased gloves and socks, adding foam claws.  Then when I talked to Seth about it, he said he didn't even care about having claws on his hands and feet so I had him wear the gloves I'd purchased and he just wore his shoes over the socks.  (Which turned out to be a good thing since it rained on Halloween.)

Tanner hasn't been feeling well for the last week or two--he has congestion, sore throat, and a yucky cough--but they are in a busy time at school, building a set for the next play--so he has been trying to plug along as much as he can.  He's even stayed after school a few days to work on things.  On Tuesday he stayed home from Seminary, though, and he would have stayed home from school all day too, but then he remembered some things that really needed to get done with the set, so he had me take him in to school (a few hours late).  He stayed home from Seminary today, too, but went to school.  Jared is going to a Halloween party this evening that Tanner was also invited to attend, but Tanner is staying home from that to try to get some rest.

I went to a baby shower for a sister in our ward on Tuesday evening.  It was nice and I had fun.  Seth had soccer practice, which Frank took him to (big help!).  For this practice, they had a scrimmage with another team that they were supposed to play earlier in the season but the game was cancelled because of rain. 

Nothing went the way I'd planned on Wednesday.  I'll spare you all the details but I ended up babysitting a 2 year old for a few hours for a sister in our ward who had surgery on Monday.  Also, Frank was trying to get a new phone and get it set up (Marriott isn't paying for his phone anymore.  He has to get his own and they will reimburse him for the portion of his bill that is Marriott calls) and needed me to go with him to the store so we could transfer our personal phones to an account in my name.  That's because he needs to get a separate bill for his phone, but they won't send him a separate bill for two accounts that are under the same name.  To make a long story short, that ended up being a lot more complicated than anticipated and the "quick stop" at the store turned out to take over an hour.  He did finally get everything worked out and he likes his new phone. 

Meanwhile, Jared and Tanner were supposed to go to YM early--they were replaying the church's broadcast about the 100th anniversary of the church and Boy Scouts--but Jared had a school project he had put off and Tanner needed to finish his Hill Cumorah work crew application (which he had also put off) so we decided they weren't going to be able to go.  They were upset--they both thought they could "finish up" after YM--but it's a good thing they stayed home because Tanner was still up until 11:00.  Not only are my kids procrastinators, but they don't seem to have any concept of how much time it is going to take to do a project.  I don't get it!  They certainly didn't inherit those traits from me!  While they were working on those projects, I went and did a food order.  Tonight I got that over to the bishop for him to sign.

Yesterday I finally found some time to sit down and figure out my lesson for Sunday.  Well, not completely--but I got a good start on it.  I settled on a topic and found a lot of information (actually, too much information) on that topic.  I still have to pull it all together, which will have to happen tomorrow I guess. 

Seth came home from school and really wanted us to have a Jack 'o Lantern this year, instead of just a pumpkin, so Frank quickly carved our pumpkin while I made dinner:
 

Tanner helped draw a design, while Seth drew pictures of his ideas:

The finished product is a little further below.  Meanwhile, Tanner put on the "fat suit" he had borrowed from a friend:

 

The kids here are not allowed to wear costumes to school, except for the high school seniors.  So Tanner borrowed this costume from a friend.  (It actually has a fan that fills it up with air.)  He put the suit on and ran around for a while.  It was hilarious because Snickers didn't recognize him in it and kept barking at him! 

Maybe you noticed in some of the pumpkin carving pictures above that the door to the deck is open.  That's because our bi-polar weather has warmed up again and the last few days have made it up to the low 70's.  Yesterday afternoon was very breezy, but warm and pleasant.  All the autumn leaves are so beautiful right now, too.  Here is a tree around the corner from us:

And here is a look down our street:

 

 It looks a lot better in real life.  A couple of our neighbors really get into Halloween...I took some pictures of their houses.  This house is right next door:
 

And this one is on the end of our row:

 

(The skeletons are trying to climb into the windows...it's kind of hard to see.)

We got the candy bowl ready:

And Seth put on his costume:

And Frank finished up the Jack 'o Lantern:

I took Seth trick or treating, and right before we left, it started to rain.  It rained off and on the whole time we were out, but never very hard, thankfully.  We walked over to our carpool boys' house and on the way we passed a really creepy house.  I was walking toward it when Seth stopped in his tracks and said "I see something in that tree."  He was right...there was a person with a white mask standing under the tree.  Seth wouldn't budge, but I walked forward a little more and could see 4 or 5 people in creepy masks standing silently in the yard.  I couldn't convince Seth to go any closer...as a matter of fact, he refused to walk past the house until we crossed to the other side of the street.  There was a group of girls behind us, and they continued to go towards the house.  When they got really close, one of the masked figures suddenly pulled out  a chainsaw (I don't think it was real) and revved it up.  All those girls went screaming down the street!  It's a good thing I didn't persuade Seth to go any closer!

I have to say that Halloween isn't all that popular in our neighborhood.  Only every 5th house or so gives away candy.  It's kind of sad.  Seth doesn't get anywhere near as much candy as the older kids got when they were little, but he doesn't care and he certainly doesn't need the sugar!  Here is his loot:
  

Today was International Children's Day at Seth's school.  He chose to represent the United States, thank goodness, so all I had to do was put him in one of the flag shirts we made years ago.  It was a relief not to have to come up with another costume.  He wanted me to go to his little program, so I did.  His class performed second, so after they were done I came home and didn't even stay to hear the other classes.  How rude! :)  This morning it was super windy and we got a heavy rainstorm for a while.  It was still warm, though.  It was very dark and gloomy all morning but then this afternoon the sun came out and everything dried out.  How nice!  I got the budget caught up today and after everyone got home from school and work, we did some yard work.  We pulled some weeds, pulled up dead plants, and mowed the lawn.  Our yard was looking pretty scraggly but it looks a lot better now.

In between everything else, I've been trying to keep up with all the household tasks and have been slowly working through a list of RS items that need to be done.  In a few snatched moments here and there I've been working on reading the book chat book, which is called A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.  It's a Pulitzer Prize winner and pretty good so far.

Frank is keeping busy but his business hasn't been as demanding this week.  He is getting up super early to exercise before he goes to work most mornings, though.  He's doing a good job and has already lost some pounds.

Ok, just writing about this week has tired me out.  I'm afraid this coming week is going to be just as exhausting...but maybe not!  The days seem to fill up fast.