Weekly Review January 30 '15

There will not be any pictures in this post but it's not because I didn't try.  For some reason, I can't figure out how to re-size the photos I want to add.  It was simple enough to do on my old computer and I'm sure it's pretty simple on this computer too except I don't know the particularly simple way that it's done on this computer, which is the catch.  Plus, my personal computer consultant / genius isn't here so I can't ask him.  He is out helping a client move from one office to another and he is no doubt earning lots of money (which I am grateful for) but in the meantime...I can't figure out how to re-size pictures on this new laptop.  So you will all have to wait until next week, I guess.

I just wrote to Scott and had a really hard time coming up with anything of consequence to tell about.  So I'm not very hopeful for this post either.  And with that introduction, anyone who has made it this far is probably going to stop reading now.  But just in case you don't, I will proceed.  Maybe 100 years from now my descendants will find it extremely interesting to read about what we did and what life was like at the end of January, 2015.

But just to be different, I think I will categorize.  Why not?

Weather:  We had a little bit of sleet / snow / slush on Friday night / Saturday morning so the two basketball games Jared was supposed to play (church ball) got cancelled.  So did the regional youth dance.  So that meant nobody had anywhere they had to go that day.  We got more snow on Monday (about 3 inches total); some came in the morning and some came in the afternoon.  But happily, that was already a scheduled day off (end of the semester) so we didn't waste another snow day.  We did waste another snow day on Tuesday, because for some reason they cancelled school.  The roads were slick early, but we certainly could have managed with a 2 hour delay.  I know this because I took Tanner somewhere at 10:00 (an hour before Seth would have had to be at school if there had been a delay) and the roads were just fine.  I was even on some less traveled country roads and there were no problems.  Then last night we had some more sleet and today it snowed for a little while (just pretty flakes drifting down; nothing stuck) but no delays or cancellations of school resulted from that, thank goodness.  The sidewalks were pretty slippery last night and this morning (Jared fell down and skinned his knee on our front walk) but the roads were fine.  I hear Hans got over 2 feet of snow where he lives!  Frank is so jealous.  As for me, I am in complete agreement with Anna:  I'm so done with winter!  I saw a sign the other day that said "only 8 more weeks until spring".  That made me smile!!

Relief Society:  I had a busy week because I was doing visiting teaching interviews.  We had two scheduled blocks of time to do them--Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening, but since obviously not everyone could come during those times, I met with a number of other sisters at times that they were available.  Plus I received emails sharing their VT information from a number of others, and talked to a few others on the phone.  Besides that, I visited another sister who had a baby a few weeks ago and in between I've been working on a lesson because I'm also teaching this Sunday.

Jared's teeth:  Jared had an orthodontist appointment this week and they had me come back to show me his x-rays and to let me know that he needs all four wisdom teeth out--soon!  When I asked them if there's any chance that he'll get his braces off soon (he's had them nearly FOUR years now!) the orthodontist said "maybe the top teeth".  Then he looked at his top teeth again and said "Yes, he can get the top ones off next time he comes in."  Which leaves me wondering if he would have ever got them off if I hadn't asked...and just how long ago he might have got them off if I'd asked sooner.  But the bottom teeth are going to have to wait until after the wisdom teeth come out.  Which is going to be a while because I couldn't even get him in for a consultation with the oral surgeon until the beginning of March.

How Tanner keeps busy:  He is scheduled to work next week, but a grand total of only 4 hours, plus another 4 that he might get called in.  So he's going to see if he can get some more work to do through a temp agency or something.  Tanner also did some service this week--helping pack boxes at a ward member's house--and he tries to go with the missionaries to appointments whenever they need him but the appointments keep getting cancelled.  He went to a stake mission prep class on Sunday and to Institute last night.  He was out pretty late last night because he went with  a group of the YSAs to Denny's afterwards.  He played the piano at the church while I did VT interviews.  He's been reading his scriptures a lot, he read a whole book this week (a church book), and he helps me around the house a bit.  But overall, he doesn't have enough do.  That's not a problem I've had lately.  He is having a lot of trouble sleeping and in general this is kind of a difficult time for him, being pretty much in limbo, so if everyone could remember him in your prayers, that would be great.

Jared's Eagle Project:  He finished his project approval and has an appointment to meet with the district guy to get it approved.  So hopefully it will be approved, and then we can move forward.  We're hoping to get it done before school gets out because a lot of boys in the ward are going to do theirs this summer and besides, our summer is looking like it is going to be crazy busy.

Frank:  He's had a very busy week because besides the usual, he also started exercising and, as I mentioned before, one of his clients is moving this week.

Books:  I've been reading A Tale of Two Cities, and enjoying it a lot.  I just got the next book for book chat, which I haven't started reading yet but I'm very interested in starting it, after reading the fly leaf.  It's called The Light Between Oceans.  I also want to read the book Tanner just read, so I'm not going to run out of reading material anytime soon.

My De-Cluttering Project:  Isn't going very far because whenever I have a small block of free time, all I want to do is sit down.  But I'm going to keep trying.

Who'd of thought?:  Did you know there is a show on HGTV called Castle Hunters?  Yes, there are actually enough people (rich people, obviously) out there who are in the market to buy a castle that they have a show about it.  And apparently there are thousands of castles for sale.  It was pretty cool to get an inside look at several castles, though.  Now I totally want to buy a castle!

Number of days until Scott gets home: 54

And on that happy note, I'll end this week's post.              

Weekly Review January 23 '15

Frank and I enjoyed our "getaway" last weekend.  First we went to see the movie Unbroken.  It was really good.  I read the book recently, and I thought the movie stayed pretty true to the book, although nowhere near as detailed, of course.  

After the movie, we drove down to Tyson's Corner, Virginia, where we went to dinner and stayed at a Residence Inn.  So we had this huge room to ourselves:

(We didn't even use the kitchen at all because we were only there for one night.  Oh, except I did put my leftovers from dinner in the refrigerator, intending to eat them for lunch the next day but then I forgot they were in there when we checked out.  Oh well!)

I can count the number of times we have been away from our kids overnight on one hand, and it seems like most of the time something goes wrong when we do.  Why are we so unlucky?  This time everything went great until Frank was taking his shower Saturday morning and the hot water suddenly ceased.  The water was so cold that even Frank (who doesn't mind cold water anywhere near as much as I do) couldn't stand to rinse off in it.  So he was stuck sitting in the tube with soap all over him for nearly an hour while I called the office, the maintenance guy came and fixed the hot water heater, and we waited 30 minutes for some hot water to be restored.  Even then, the water wasn't very hot (just warm) and since I hadn't showered yet, my shower was pretty chilly too.  (Although nowhere near as bad as Frank's.) And I HATE cold showers, people!!  I like them steaming hot.

Waiting for the hot water problem to be (somewhat) resolved slowed us down quite a bit and we were worried that we weren't going to be quite ready to leave at check out time so Frank called the front office (again) to let them know we might be a little late and they were so sorry about the cold showers (on a very cold day in January, by the way) that they gave us the room for free.  So our incredibly inexpensive room (because we got it for half the Marriott employee rate to start out with) ended up being even more inexpensive than we thought it was going to be.  So that wasn't so bad.  It was definitely better than the time the people in the room next door kept the movie Independence Day on super loud...all night long!

So anyway, we checked out (only a few minutes late) and spent the day exploring the National Portrait Gallery.  I'm still not sure how we ended up spending so much time there, because it actually wasn't incredibly interesting.  I think we both liked the courtyard (where we ate our lunch) the best:
  

Frank eating an incredibly overpriced sandwich.

After the museum, we took the long route home, seeing a few DC sites and ending up on "Embassy Row", where we saw a bunch of cool embassy buildings.  Washington DC really has a lot of great architecture everywhere you look!  I tried to get pictures but I admit none of them are very good...mainly because we were moving.  DC traffic is crazy so you don't mess with it!!  Anyway, here are a few of my attempts to capture all the beautiful buildings:

(not sure why the Capitol Building has scaffolding on the dome right now)

Some of the embassies (they all have flags flying in front of them, but most of the time I couldn't tell what country it was):

We did enjoy our time away, in spite of the cold water issue!  I wasn't really ready to return to real life yet, but didn't have much choice.

Sunday was nice though.  The sister I visit teach did come to church again, and this time she brought her daughter and they stayed for all the meetings.  That made me happy.  Jared had a fireside that evening.

Everyone was home on Monday for Martin Luther King Day.  I helped Jared sign up for the ACT and the SAT, and took Tanner to his work to fill out some paperwork so they could start putting him on the schedule (Except they haven't put him on the schedule yet...he's not working at all next week!  He's trying to find out why.)  Anyway, the paperwork ended up being a lot more involved than we anticipated so I was stressed because we were having the Elders over for dinner and Tanner was going with them afterwards to an appointment.  Thankfully, Frank made dinner and then the appointment got cancelled so I wasn't worrying about us being late anymore.  We got home about the time that everyone else finished eating dinner.

It snowed on Wednesday...we got about three inches...but guess what?  They DIDN'T cancel school!  That doesn't happen very often.  It was mostly the timing of the storm...it didn't start snowing until late morning and the snow mostly stopped before dismissal times.  Seth enjoyed playing in the snow after he got home from school:

(Our neighbor built the snowman in his backyard.)

And good news...Seth got to put those new snow pants to use, so they weren't a complete waste of money!  I am glad to be wrong about that!

We did have a 2 hour delay on Thursday morning.  I guess the roads got a bit slick overnight, because they weren't bad at all Wednesday evening.  I don't mind delays nearly as much as snow days...they don't cut into the time we'll have off over the summer and when you're awake at 5:30 am and then find out that you can roll over and go back to sleep for an hour or two...well, who isn't going to like that?!
Tanner was gone most of the day on Wednesday...he volunteered to fill an assignment at the Bishop's Store House.  He left at 6:15 am and didn't get home until nearly 6:00.  I think he enjoyed it, though.  It was nice for him to have something productive to do for once.

Most of the week was busy with the usual chores, errands, taking kids to appointments, and RS stuff.  I had a presidency meeting, went to a scout committee meeting, and did a few visiting teaching interviews.  (I'll be doing many more of those next week.)  I made an appointment to take Tanner in to apply for a passport.

I finished watching a movie about Queen Victoria and when I could I squeezed in some reading.  I have a couple of books on my new tablet, and this week I finished Northanger Abbey (Jane Austin) and started A Tale of Two Cities.  (I had never read the former before but I did read the latter one a long time ago.  Such a good book, though, so I want to read it again.)

That sums it up for this week.  January seems to be going by fast...only one week left!  I am not complaining about that either, since it's not my favorite month.  Every day that passes brings us closer to spring and WARMTH!  Just thinking about that makes me smile.  

Weekly Review January 16 '15

This post is coming to you for the first time from my new laptop.  I actually got the laptop in October, but all my files and such weren't moved from my old laptop to the new one until a few days ago.  My old laptop has been struggling along for quite a while (which is why we bought the new laptop in the first place) but this last week it started having alarming symptoms of imminent collapse, so Frank made the time to get all my files off of the old one onto the new one.  You know the old saying about doctor's wives dying young and shoemaker's wives going barefoot?  Same idea.  The IT guy's wife can't get her computer set up. :)  Not his fault, of course...he's just so busy fixing and setting up other people's computers that he doesn't have any time left to do his own family's.  And since all that work he's doing is paying for the new laptop in the first place, I can't complain much.  But anyway, the new computer is all set up now and I'm in business.

This week there was a little more going on than last week so maybe I'll have a little more to write about.  Our weekends have not been jam packed with activities, which has been nice.  On Saturday I got my hair cut and that evening I gave a ride to a sister in our ward and her three children...every Saturday they are able to visit her husband (he's in jail) but they don't have a working car & the mom can't drive anyway so they need help getting to their visit.  I took them once last month too.  Anyway, this time I decided to have Frank come with me so we could have our "date" while we waited for them.  We got some shopping done...got new vent covers for the main level, including the half bath so we have finally completely finished the bathroom redo!  

Sunday was our ward conference, and it was really good.  I actually got to sleep in a bit...our ward council meeting was later than usual and the stake presidency came to it.  One of the sisters I visit teach who rarely comes to church showed up and sat with us for Sacrament Meeting so I was happy about that.  Plus she was happy to be visited this week (I saw her yesterday) and she said she's coming to church again this Sunday.  She is really a lovely person and she's had a very hard life.  I would love to see her come to church more consistently because I know it would bless her.  The stake RS president taught RS and it was awesome.

It was a somewhat busy RS week although not overwhelming...dare I say out loud that RS has been somewhat calm for the last month or more?  I did a food order, started working on the lesson I'll be teaching in February, and we had our monthly evening meeting this week, plus the usual list of random things that doesn't go away.  Our meeting this month was really laid back...we played a bunch of games to get to know each other better.  It was fun, but we had a pretty small group.  Tanner and 3 of his friends took care of the nursery for us, which was very helpful.  The EQ in our ward are supposed to do that but they usually forget to take care of it...or they remember to ask for volunteers but then the volunteers forget to come...or back out at the last minute.  I was trying to think who we could ask to do it last minute when I remembered Tanner is home and not doing much!  He asked three of the other YSA guys in our ward if they could help and all three of them came!  I think it was kind of fun for all of them to do it together and it helped us out a lot so it was a win-win.  

Speaking of Tanner, though, he is going to be busier starting next week because he got a job!  Hooray!  He had an interview on Tuesday and when he found me afterwards (it was at the mall, so I was at the book store reading while I waited for him) and I asked him how it went, he said "Well, I got the job."  I was very surprised they made a decision on the spot like that, but I am not complaining.  This is actually the first job he interviewed for...I told him not to expect that to ever happen again!  Anyway, it's at a clothing store at the mall called Hollister, and I don't know much about it yet except that he is doing things like stocking and folding clothes and stuff like that (not sales).  One of his friends from high school worked there (she just left to go to college, though) and she is the one who told them they were hiring and it did probably help him that she referred him.  Also the lady that did the interview said a bunch of college students just left, so they really need new people.  Not sure yet what hours he will be working (he may even do some night work but that is actually ideal for Tanner--he has no problem staying up all night and sleeping all day!) but he is supposed to start next week.  

It will be nice for Tanner to have more to do...he is feeling pretty bored a lot of the time.  He did have several activities this week, though.  He went to a YSA movie night last Friday and then spent the night at a friend's house.  He went to a movie with a high school friend on Monday and to Institute last night.  

Jared has been busy too.  He went the theater class to see a play on Tuesday evening.  He was supposed to be home by 11:30 at the latest...didn't get home until 1:00 am!  Yes, we weren't very happy about that.  Apparently the play was excellent, though, and he did still get up for Seminary the next morning since that was the main stipulation we gave him for letting him go in the first place.  They were also having auditions for a play this week and he was helping with that so he stayed after school every day for several hours.  Well, every day except Monday because on Monday there wasn't any school.  

We had freezing rain that morning and first they put school on a 2 hour delay and then later they re-evaluated and decided to cancel school entirely.  By mid morning all the ice had melted, leaving everyone wondering what the point of cancelling school was...everyone called it a "rain day".  Well, rain or snow...we've had two "snow" days now and I hope we don't have any more. 

On Wednesday I went to lunch with a friend.  We went to a new place called Pie Five Pizza, which is basically like Subway, only it's pizza instead of sandwiches.  You get a personal size pizza and you get to pick all your own toppings.  Which leaves me wondering...why didn't someone think up this idea a long time ago?!  I really liked it, probably because my taste in pizza toppings differs quite widely from the rest of the people in my family.  I also happen to be the visiting teacher of this friend, and since I also visit teach the sister I saw on Saturday (the one who needed a ride) that means I have visited all my sisters this month, and it is only the 16th!  Wow, that never happens.  

Wednesday was, of course, Frank's birthday also.  It started out a lot earlier than he would have liked (remember, we were up until 1:00 am waiting for Jared to get home) but I think in the end it turned out ok.  He got several cards and gifts, and I made him Oreo cheesecake too.  (The recipe turned out great, Mom...especially with the pre-made crust!)  A few pictures:        

Because I had RS meeting that night and Jared had YM and Tanner was helping with the nursery, and I also had a song practice (I'm singing in a small group this Sunday) we didn't have much time to celebrate.  So last night we continued celebrating by taking him out to dinner.  We went somewhere different...to a Japanese steak house, where they cook your food on a grill right there at the table, and make a little show of it by flipping eggs in the air, juggling utensils, making flames shoot up in the air, and throwing shrimp into the guest's mouths.  Frank and I had been there before (years ago) but the boys had never been to a place like that.  They enjoyed it although Seth was really nervous about the shooting flames part.  He saw that happening at other tables before they came to ours, and he was really anxious about it.  (Which I totally understood...when I was his age I would have been trying to leave the restaurant!)  When the guy did it at our table, he was scared but afterwards he said "that was totally terrifying!" but with a smile and a look of admiration on his face.

Today Frank and I are going to continue celebrating by running away. :)  Just for one night, and just down to Washington DC.  Should be fun, though.

And that's it for this week!

Weekly Review January 9 '15

Greetings all!  This will probably be a somewhat short post also.  Not a lot going on.  I'm not really complaining about that, though.

Last Friday Frank and I went to the temple.  We wanted to squeeze in a visit before the temple closed for winter maintenance.  Because Frank was still coughing a lot (aftermath of the flu), we decided to do some initiatories instead of an endowment session.  It was really nice!  Plus, even though the festival of lights was supposed to be over, I was really happy to discover that they still had all the Christmas lights on.  We weren't able to make it down to see the lights this Christmas before then!  I took some pictures but they are on my tablet and I have no idea how to get them from there to my computer, so you'll have to trust me on that.

On Saturday we had the missionaries over for dinner and right before they showed up, Seth started complaining that his head hurt.  Then he said he wasn't really hungry, so he stayed on the couch in the living room while we had dinner.  Before we finished, he was asleep!  That set off some alarm bells in our minds.  He hadn't been complaining that his stomach hurt, but I just had a funny feeling about it and decided to get out a bucket for him...just in case.  Good thing.  He woke up an hour or so later and started throwing up.  

Meanwhile, during dinner a family in the ward had called...the wife had fallen and broken her wrist and the husband was looking for someone to stay with his two little boys so he could meet her at the hospital.  So I left dinner to make phone calls but couldn't find anybody at home.  Tanner & Jared offered to stay with the kids so after dinner Frank took the missionaries home and dropped the boys off at this family's home.  He was going back to get them when Seth woke up and started throwing up.  

Having Seth sick complicated Sunday a bit.  We were having a combined RS / Priesthood, though, so I felt like it wasn't as important for me to be there.  So I went to Ward Council in the morning (we are still meeting at 8:30 even though church doesn't start until 1:00 now) and then stayed for another ward's Sacrament meeting so I could take the sacrament before coming home.  Then I stayed with Seth while Frank and the other 2 boys attended our regular meetings.  I got pretty much the easy end of caring for Seth because he was throwing up in the morning but by the time I got home around 11:30 he stopped.  By afternoon he was asking for crackers and when I let him try some he kept them down with no problem.  Meanwhile, I got some things done for RS, including preparing for two meetings, and watched a DVD that Amy's family sent us for Christmas...it was a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert from a year or two ago.  It's the one with the candy bomber, if you've seen that one.  Wow, it was so good I just sobbed through most of it!

I had to keep Seth home from school on Monday since he was throwing up less than 24 hours before.  You may remember he missed 5 of the last 7 days of school before winter break, including the last 2 days before break.  The school nurse actually called on Monday to see what was going on with him.  No, we really didn't take an extended vacation or anything...I wish!!  

Seth was all set to go back to school on Tuesday and then this happened:

We got about 3 inches of snow, so of course they cancelled school.  It all came down in the morning around the time everyone would have been driving to school.  And even though there wasn't much snow, the roads were pretty slick.  Frank tried to go to work and after an hour he had only made it to the mall (about 10 minutes away normally) so he just gave up and decided to turn around and come back home.  He worked from home instead.

By afternoon the roads were pretty cleared up (still slippery in some places) so he and I went to lunch.  We also remembered that we needed to buy a new coat for Seth...he had broken the zipper on his coat shortly before Christmas.  So we took Seth out and got him a coat (found a great one half price at Land's End store!) plus some boots and (because Frank really wanted to) some snow pants.  Frank and I always argue about snow pants.  I admit that they are really great to have for sledding /playing in the snow.  There is no doubt that the kids have come in soaked to the bone when they don't have them.  But you never know if they are going to get used very much or not.  This winter it has only snowed twice so far.  I just have a feeling they aren't going to get used much, if at all.  But we did buy them a little big so they should fit him next winter too.  I hope I am wrong and that we get our money's worth out of them!

Seth finally got to go back to school on Wednesday!

I've kept busy this week with RS stuff (Presidency Meeting Monday, meeting with the bishop Tuesday, and the usual list of random tasks) and taking boys places (Tanner to apply for jobs, Jared to get his haircut, Tanner to the doctor for a med check).  I also read another book called Prisoner of Tehran, which is a memoir by a lady who was a political prisoner in Iran during the early 1980s (the time of the shah getting exiled, Ayatollah Khomeini taking over, and the hostage crisis).  She was arrested when she was only 16 years old.  It was a very interesting book, and well worth reading.  I was a little wary of it because I don't enjoy reading about things like torture, but it wasn't too bad...there was very little of that in the book even though she definitely was tortured.  There were lots of flashbacks to her experiences before being arrested also which gave me some insights on what it was like to live in Iran before everything went crazy, and it was really very well written in my opinion.  The other thing I did was to start doing some cleaning / organizing in the kitchen.  The kitchen is going to be my project for this month.  I'm working on a different room every month.  I think I tried to do this last year and didn't get very far, but I am trying again!

Most of this week it has been miserably cold.  As in single digits and "highs" of 21, for example.  Today it's in the high 30's and that feels warm by comparison.  Yesterday morning, when it was 9 degrees, the heater in the Expedition wouldn't work.  Fun!  Jared added water to the engine and it finally started working later in the afternoon.  Didn't help much on the couple of drives I had to make that morning, though.  Frank says the radiator needs to be flushed and antifreeze needs to be added so it won't happen again.

It has been nice to have Tanner around, especially because I don't have to get Seth up early to make the Seminary run with me.  He has done a little cleaning in his room, has worked on a few job applications (slow progress there, though), and went on splits with the missionaries.  He went Tuesday night and he is going again right now.  He's planning to spend a lot of time with the missionaries over the next few months.  He also went to Institute and to YSA FHE.  He may go to a YSA movie night tonight.  Today he visited his high school for a while, and went to lunch with some friends from high school.  I am noticing that he has a lot more opinions about what is going on in the world than he did before he left.  Apparently, he paid a lot more attention to the news while he was out in Utah.  They also discussed a lot of things in his Sociology class.  It is kind of fun to see him starting to pay attention to the adult world.

Jared and Tanner have been driving anytime I go anywhere with them so they are both getting a lot of practice.  It will be nice when both of them have their licenses.

This morning I had kind of a crazy morning because when I went to get my keys out of my purse to get the car warmed up, they weren't there!  And I looked everywhere and couldn't find them.  I finally remembered that Tanner had checked the mail the night before (the key to the mailbox is on my key ring) so I texted him and asked what he did with them and he said check his coat pockets and there they were.  (Thankfully, he hadn't worn his coat this morning although I can't imagine why he didn't.)  So I had to go out with wet hair since I spent the time I should have been drying my hair looking for the keys, but it all worked out in the end and I barely got the kids to school on time.

That sums it up for this week!    

Weekly Review January 2 '15

Happy New Year, everyone!

Now I have to remember to write "2015" on checks and such.

This will be a shorter post, since we didn't have a lot going on this week.  Which was nice for a change!  We all got a lot more sleep and rest and everyone is on the mend.  Not perfect, but definitely improving.  Tanner missed church on Sunday because besides being sick, he also slept terrible on Saturday night.  He and Jared have been sleeping really late every day, even though we haven't been letting them stay up late at night (with the exception of New Year's Eve).  I've been waking up around 8:00 most days, which is really sleeping in for me.

Frank went to work on Monday but the rest of the week he has been working from home (with the exception of yesterday, which he had off).  He has also been busy doing several jobs for clients.  He was thankfully well enough to go to church on Sunday since he was giving a talk as well as teaching Gospel Doctrine.  He did a good job on both.  Well actually I missed most of his lesson because I had to talk to the bishop.  But what I heard was good.

I've been using this week to get caught up on a long list of RS things.  I also helped Jared get going on his Eagle project and reminded him to get his homework done.  I read the entire book for book chat, which was easy to do since it was relatively short and easy to read.  I actually read it in two days.  I really enjoyed it...it's called A Dog's Purpose, and is written from the dog's point of view.  It was really funny at times and sweet too.  We have a couple of members of our book group who do not like animals and I don't know if they will like it but if you don't hate animals I think you will enjoy it!

I've been making a valiant effort to use my new tablet and have resisted the desire to purchase a new paper planner for 2015.  It's working out ok so far, but there are many aspects of the paper planner that I prefer.  Don't get me wrong...the tablet has some nice features, but I've grown used to my paper planner system and the tablet doesn't do everything the same way.  I am persevering, though.  The main reason I wanted a tablet was for the e reader options, and I am enjoying that part of it.

We've had some really cold days this week but a few nice ones as well.  One nice day Frank took his drone outside and flew it around for a while.  Jared and Tanner were trying out Jared's new bow and arrow set, Seth was watching (both the archery and the drone) and I took Snickers out for a walk.  It was nice for all of us to get out of the house for a while.

For New Year's Eve, we were invited to a friend's house for dinner and to play games.  Although we actually ended up talking all night instead of playing games!  The boys did play games, though.  We had a good time.  I think that was Seth's first experience with staying up until midnight to welcome in the new year.  Jared and Tanner stayed there overnight.  We came home but didn't get home until about 1:30 am.

On New Year's day (yesterday) I took down all the Christmas decorations.  I was actually going to wait until Saturday, but the whole house really needed to be swept & vacuumed and I realized we were going to have to do that all over again after taking down the decorations, so I decided to do the decorations first.  I love Christmas decorations and never like to take them down but living in a small house helps to motivate me to do it.  I always feel more than compensated by the much "cleaner" less cluttered look once they are down.  I really miss the beautiful tree, but it does take up space!  Plus this year I got a new tree skirt to match our white tree.  I had a hard time finding anything but I finally found a pretty silver one I liked.  The one drawback?  It has glitter on it!  And the glitter doesn't all stay on it.  So I was more than happy to sweep / vacuum up all the glitter...not to mention the inevitable tree needles (and our tree isn't even real).  If I ever have a bigger house I will probably leave the Christmas decorations up until February.  But until then, it's a good thing my house is small.

That's really it...sorry this week is pretty boring (and no pictures, either).  We are happy to start a new year and have some goals we feel good about working on.  Hopefully in a year I'll be able to look back and feel good about what we accomplished.  

New Christmas Ornaments 2014

We add at least one ornament to our tree each year.  I like to find an ornament that represents something we did that year.  Here are the ornaments we picked up this year:

Seth made this cute little gingerbread boy ornament at the Steiner House when we visited a few weeks ago for Museums by Candlelight.

This ornament does not show up very well on our white Christmas tree!  It is a snowflake made of salt from the Great Salt Lake.  I got it at This Is the Place Historical Park when we were in Utah this summer.  This ornament will always remind me of our wonderful family reunion, which included a service project at This Is the Place.  I remember the day we were there was such a perfect summer day...not too hot, although it got pretty warm when we were pulling weeds!  Cooling off at the splash pad afterwards was a blast, though.

My secretary in RS made this ornament for me.  She is a talented quilter.  Isn't it beautiful?

The boys received ornaments from Grandma & Grandpa Pew too, of course.  I will have to get pictures of them sometime also.  In the meantime, I am keeping a written record of those ornaments so they will know what year they got each one.

I love our hodgepodge of a tree!  There are so many great memories wrapped up in it!

Weekly Review December 26 '14

Merry (day after) Christmas!!

Can't believe this will be my last weekly review for the year 2014.  

Our days were pretty full this week.  All those little last minute Christmas things can take up a lot of time.  I hope someday I'll figure out how to simplify more.  

We still have unhealthy people at our house.  Seth and Jared are improving at last.  Neither one of them made it back to school, though (last day was Tuesday).  I finally gave up and had Frank take them both to the doctor on Tuesday.  Not because I thought they'd be able to do anything to help them get better faster, but because I figured they'd missed so much school it would be a good idea for them to have a doctor's note.  Plus I wanted to make sure neither one of them had developed any kind of secondary bacterial infection.  They did a strep test on Jared, which came back negative, and an influenza type A test on Seth, which came back positive.  Just as I suspected!  They didn't bother to test Jared for influenza also--it was kind of a given that if Seth had it, he had it too.  Anyway, they are both doing better although Jared still has a decent cough.  Now the rest of us don't feel so well though.  Tanner came home Sunday and by Wednesday was feeling sick.  Frank and I both felt not the best off and on all week but we've been trying to ignore it and keep going...too much to do!!  Frank seems to be worse today, though.  I'm not too bad but my throat is feeling pretty irritated.  Frank had a flu shot, by the way, so hopefully he will not get a bad case.  I tend to fight things off pretty well so hopefully I won't get worse.  Tanner seems to be holding his own as well, although he doesn't feel great.  Gotta love it!  At least we don't have a lot of places we need to go this next week, so hopefully we'll get some rest and everyone will be healthy again soon.

We are very happy to have Tanner back home with us.  He got back late Sunday evening.  His flight was delayed about a half hour and the traffic at the airport was ridiculous so it took us a while to get from the cell phone lot to the terminal, but other than that everything went smoothly with his flight home.  He is on a very messed up sleep schedule but otherwise seems to be adjusting well to being home.

On Monday he had a visitor...a good friend he met at BYU came by.  Her name is Caroline; if you've seen pictures of him with a girl on Facebook, this is the same girl.  Caroline lives in Pittsburgh.  She is going on a mission in February to Argentina and on Tuesday she was going to the temple for the first time.  So on Monday she and her family drove down this way (they were staying in DC overnight) and on the way they dropped her off at our house so that she and Tanner could spend some time together.  They went downtown and got some dinner and did some shopping in the cute little shops that we have in Frederick's historic district.  Then Frank drove her (Tanner went along of course) down to her hotel in Bethesda.  She is a very nice girl (and a very pretty one too!) and we were glad we got to meet her.  

Meanwhile on Monday I made candy and tried to watch the BYU game (at the same time).  Of course, the outcome of the game was super frustrating, but the candy turned out fine.

On Tuesday I baked cookies: 

And here is the fudge I made Monday, minus a few pieces since Caroline, Tanner, and everyone else had to try some:

On Monday and Tuesday Frank and I were also getting lots of last minute shopping and errands done, and I was trying to fit in wrapping presents wherever I could.

Wednesday we had one of our sets of Elders over for dinner.  I started cooking around noon and didn't finish until they arrived at 5:00 for dinner.  Three days in a row in the kitchen...not my favorite!  Plus I love my tile floors but they are hard to stand on for three days straight.  I was aching all over (or maybe that was the flu...not sure!)  The dinner turned out very nice, though.  Not sure why I forgot to take pictures.  The Elders loved it.  They were allowed to stay all evening, since it was Christmas Eve, and their mission president had given them permission to watch G rated movies and the movie Frozen (I guess it's PG).  Neither one of them had seen Frozen yet, since they've both been out over a year, so we watched that and they got a kick out of it.  After that, we got more serious and watched Joy to the World.  Then everyone got to open a present (the Elders got bread and jam) and we had dessert.  I gave all the boys a copy of the book Erick put together a few years ago that is a record of all the things Grandpa Johnson has said in his sleep.  Jared happened to pick that present to open, so he was reading a bunch of things Grandpa said and the Elders were laughing their heads off.

After that, Frank took the Elders home.  They did some service for us, though...helped Frank pick up a Christmas gift that we had been storing at a warehouse of one of his clients.  Since most of the boys couldn't think of hardly anything they wanted for Christmas, we decided to get a larger family gift...a bigger television.  Ever since we got the new entertainment center (a year and a half ago) the boys have been saying we "need" a bigger television.  So I knew they would like to have one.  It was really nice for Frank to have some help loading that up in the car!  He left it in the car until the boys went to bed and then I helped him get it inside.

Christmas Eve was rainy and very foggy.  It actually rained a lot Monday through Wednesday.  Christmas was sunny and mild, which is my kind of Christmas!  I don't care if it snows or not.  Temperatures in the 50s is just fine with me!  Here is what "Santa" brought to everyone:

Seth

Jared

Tanner

Annette

Frank

Everyone

Plus lots under the tree; gifts to each other:

Random Christmas Day photos follow.  First, coming downstairs:

(Seth is wrapped in his new Star Wars blanket--the present he opened Christmas Eve.)

Lots of treats on the table:

I meant to take treats to our home teaching and visiting teaching families, but we ran out of time.  Plus, I'm not sure anyone wants anything from our infected household.  So we have way more treats than we need.

Snickers sniffs his new stuffed squirrel:

Frank and Jared setting up the new television (which, by the way, looks much bigger to me here at home than it did in the store!):

Seth picks a "convenient" spot to build one of his Chima Lego sets:

A Tenkai Knight:

Me trying to figure out my Nook tablet:

Another Tenkai Knight:

The best part of the day, talking to Scott on Skype:

We had a relaxing day, mostly.  We played new games and listened to new music and watched a new movie.  I didn't even cook the food I'd planned to cook because I wasn't feeling too well.  We just ate leftovers from the night before and of course...a lot of treats too.  We had a nice day and feel very blessed.

Since last week I mentioned I was making a gift for Tanner, I should tell you what it is now.  Because I know you're all dying to know, right?! :)  I made him a calendar with photographs from the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  I was actually more excited to give that to him than anything else.  And he did love it!

Today I've been trying to get caught up on some chores like laundry, vacuuming, and updating the budget as well as some general tidying up.  The house is a mess!  Tanner was supposed to take his driver's test but since he has the flu and also hasn't had a chance to drive since he got home, we cancelled it.  Unfortunately, the next time he can get in is February 20th.  But the lady I talked to said we can check for cancellations each morning and we might be able to get him in sooner.  She was super nice, by the way.  I think she deserves employee of the month.

That's all I can remember from this week, except that I also read The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever to Seth and he loved it.  I had to convince him to listen to it, but after one chapter he was hooked.  I love that book too.  It was really fun to share it with him.

We love you all and it was nice to talk to many of you yesterday.  See you in 2015!