Weekly Review March 9 '18

Happy Birthday today to Tim and to Dee!

This week went by fast and wasn't as eventful, I think. No more trips to the vet, thankfully! Snickers seems to be himself again. We are done with all the medications except for 2, and we will be done with one of those two on Sunday so we will soon be down to 1 medication, which he will have to take for the rest of his life. I did have some concern about him earlier this week because he started to refuse to take his liver medication (the one that he needs to take indefinitely) but Frank had the idea to cut the pill into smaller pieces and now that I am doing that, he is taking it again so we seemed to have solved that problem.

Here's a summary of the rest of the week.

Saturday: All of the usual stuff like swimming and cleaning the kitchen floor. Seth didn't have to do homework or Cub Scouts because he did it on Friday. He did well at his swimming lesson and they started teaching him how to use his arms, which is a level 4 skill. There are still a few things in level 3 that he can't do, but I guess they decided to start working on some of the level 4 things. I had a song practice that afternoon for the musical number we're doing on Sunday and the practice went well. I worked on our taxes quite a bit and we took apart the bunk bed in the upstairs bedroom (so there is more room in there for the walls to be painted.) I also got asked to substitute a Primary class last minute, so I prepared the lesson for the class. It was a busy day, but a good one.

Sunday: As usual, I had choir practice, Frank had ward council, and we all went to church. I enjoyed going to Primary--it's always fun when I get to do that. I did some indexing in the morning. We had the missionaries over for dinner that evening and enjoyed that.

Monday: I had all the usual things to do (laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming) and I also went with Frank to his appointment with the dietitian. It was interesting to talk to her. She mostly said that what we have been doing is good, so to keep it up. She did give us a few more ideas for breakfast and lunch menus, and some suggested cookbooks that will have more dinner menu ideas. She also suggested a few things that we can eat for desserts. Overall, it was an encouraging visit. I feel like I am starting to figure out how to feed Frank, and that we have actually made the shift to healthier eating habits for the most part. One indication that I am doing better: most of my grocery list is items in the produce department. I also get meat and some dairy products, but very few items from the boxed / canned food aisles, so we are eating a lot fewer processed items than we used to eat. I started tracking my intake of calories, fat, and carbs this week and I am doing better than I thought also. I'm feeling motivated to be as disciplined about what I eat as Frank is. It feels good to eat healthier! It's also encouraging to discover that we can eat most of the things that we like--we just have to be careful to eat them in much smaller amounts. So pizza may not work for dinner, but a piece of pizza for a snack will work as long as it fits into the overall total carb & calorie allowance for the day. Anyway, back to the rest of Monday--we had family night that evening as usual.

Tuesday: Mostly a normal day except Frank had a dentist appointment in the morning. Seth and I had den meetings as usual that evening and after den meeting I had a cub committee meeting. For den meeting, the Bears started working on an adventure called Marble Madness. (I've done this adventure with all of the boys I've had so far, so this is my third time doing this one.) It's fairly easy to complete and the boys really enjoy it. Here's a few pictures:

After the Webelos and Wolves finished their den meetings (they finished a little early) all those boys came in and wanted to play too:

I enjoyed seeing all the boys having so much fun together!

Wednesday: Mostly a usual day. I went to my religion class and went grocery shopping at WalMart. While I was there, I also got this Lego set:

I didn't get it for Seth, I got it for me...because I am a Lego nerd! Plus I'm nostalgic, and this is a "retro" set that is a lot like the sets we had when we were kids.

That evening we spent some time moving almost all the stuff out of the upstairs bedroom so that there will be room to paint. We moved all of the stuff to the bedroom downstairs which means we spent about an hour carrying stuff up and down stairs. It was tiring, but it needed to get done. Our neighbor is supposed to start painting the room tomorrow. It looks atrocious right now because I have done a lot of patching but the priming and painting isn't done yet:

I'm sure it will look great when out neighbor finishes painting it, though. We are going to have it painted the same color as the living room / upstairs hallway because it's neutral.

Thursday: Mostly the normal stuff again. Frank was working at the data center in Frederick, so I went over there and we had lunch together. I was telling Frank at lunch that I wanted to get some new jeans, but I was looking for a particular kind. On the way home from lunch I stopped at Costco to get some chicken and on my way in there was a large display of the very kind of jeans I wanted to get! So that was nice.

Today I got the budget done--I am glad I got that done before I went to pick up Seth from school. Frank had a follow up with the eye doctor and he is getting new lenses for his glasses as well as some contact lenses. After I picked up Seth from school we went to the library to pick up some books I put on hold for him--books about ancient Egypt, because he is working on a project about that at school. Then I dropped him off to play at the carpool boys' house. 

Other stuff: Reading through the daily run down, it doesn't sound like we were very busy this week, but actually we were because in between I was doing lots of other stuff. Frank and I have been exercising every day. I've been reading to Seth a lot (Percy Jackson book). I've also been reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and The Story of Mankind. I've been practicing the ukulele every day, practicing the song for Sunday almost every day, and helping Seth do homework every day. I've been reading through old emails still (I'm almost done with that project) and I talked to Scott twice. Logging all the things I ate also took some time (although that will get easier the longer I do it).  I also enjoyed watching a few shows on Netflix including one called "Is Genesis History?" which was really fascinating. It was all about evidence in rocks, the fossil layers, and life itself that indicates that the earth is not as old as the traditionally held view (millions of years) but instead a catastrophic event (such as the flood) can account for a lot of the things we see in the geological record. It also discussed fossil evidence and DNA evidence that refutes the idea of evolution. I don't need any physical evidence to believe that Genesis is history, but I still found the show really interesting and watching it gave me an even greater appreciation for the beautiful world Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have created for us and it was a reminder also of how intelligent, wise, and masterful they are. At one point, when they were explaining how DNA is put together, I turned to Seth (who was watching the show with me) and exclaimed "God is a genius!!!"

One other thing--Frank and I are thinking about buying a new refrigerator. We've thought about it for a while but recently Frank said "now that we are buying all these vegetables, we need more room in the refrigerator." Actually, our refrigerator is a pretty decent size but the space is not allocated in the most helpful way. It is hard for us to think about buying a new appliance when the old one still works (and refrigerators aren't cheap!) but this refrigerator is at least 10 years old (some friends gave it to us 9 years ago, but I don't know how long they had it) so it wouldn't be entirely wasteful to get a new one. Besides, we don't want to wait until it quits working to get a new one! We'll keep thinking about it, though. I don't think we are going to rush out and buy a new refrigerator this week. Our washing machine is 21 years old now and has been making some noises lately so maybe that will be the next large appliance we purchase.

That is everything I can think of to tell you about this week.

Weekly Review March 2 '18

March is definitely coming in like a lion. The wind is howling away outside...wow!! We are experiencing what they call a "nor'easter". Usually that means we get a lot of rain (or snow) and really high winds. On the coast, they get a lot of coastal flooding too. Some places in the northeast are definitely getting (or going to get) a lot of rain or snow, but we are mostly getting the windy part of the storm. We did get quite a bit of rain last evening and the winds were howling last night too--loud enough that it woke me up a few times. This morning we actually had snow flakes coming down for a while but not a lot of flakes and I think they all got blown into the next state before they even hit the ground. Now it is just really windy but we aren't getting any precipitation. Even so, (and much to my surprise) they cancelled school today. I'm not sure why, unless they were worried about power outages / trees & power lines on the roads. So far, we still have power and I am thankful for that! I think there are a number of places that have lost power, though.

We had a somewhat eventful week, mostly not the good kind of event, though. The eventful part involved Snickers. On Tuesday evening I noticed he wasn't acting like himself--his tail was down and he didn't beg for his dinner like he usually does. When we did feed him, he didn't eat his dinner right away. He ate some of it a few hours later, but he never finished it, so I knew he wasn't feeling very well. He was also a bit lethargic. That evening I had to give him some medicine that was supposed to help calm him because he had an ultrasound the next day. I was supposed to give him another calming tablet in the morning. Well, in the morning when I opened his crate he didn't come out. Usually when I open his crate in the morning, he comes out right away and he is anxious to go outside and then to eat his breakfast. Sometimes he is a bit slow to come out, so I didn't think too much about it but went downstairs thinking he would follow me soon. I exercised, and then realized he had never come down, so I went up to check on him. When I called his name, he didn't move at all. He didn't even prick up his ears. He was curled up with his face away from me, so I couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not. When he didn't respond to my voice at all, I got a little alarmed and reached in to make sure he was breathing. At first, I thought he wasn't breathing but then I did feel that he was breathing. Plus, he was warm so that was a relief. I seriously thought for a few minutes that he may have passed away in the night. I kept checking on him periodically and he was breathing, but I couldn't get him to move at all. It seemed like he was in a deep sleep. I had already decided that I would call the vet as soon as they opened at 8:00 am, even though he was scheduled to go in later that day. Right before I called them, I did get him to finally lift up his head and look at me, but he looked like he could barely keep his eyes open. When I called the vet, as I expected, they asked me to bring him in as soon as possible. So I finished helping Seth get ready for school and then we took Snickers to the vet.

He did seem to wake up finally when we were getting ready to leave, and I was able to take him out but he definitely wasn't acting like himself still. Usually in the car he gets very excited / anxious and whines a lot. He moves around a lot too--looks out the window a lot and so forth. This time he only whimpered quietly a few times and he lay quietly on Seth's lap for the whole trip. When I got there, they asked me a bunch of questions and then had me leave him there. I took Seth to school (he was about 10 minutes late) and did my regular shopping that needed to be done. The vet called with an update--she had examined Snickers and decided that he was probably sick with some sort of gastro-intestinal bug. They also did more bloodwork. They put him on fluids and kept him on the fluids all day. I got another update later, after they did the ultrasound. He does not have any bladder stones so they aren't sure why there was blood in his urine. His liver didn't look as good as it did the last time they did an ultrasound (about a year ago) so it has deteriorated a bit but it still doesn't look too bad. All his other body parts looked fine too. They kept Snickers there for the rest of the day because they wanted to give him a lot of fluids to help him start feeling better. He did look a bit better when I picked him up although he definitely wasn't himself still--very quiet. They left the catheter in his leg & just wrapped it up because there was a possibility that he would need more fluids the next day.

When we got him home, he didn't want to eat until we hand-fed him. We got him to eat most of this dinner that way. I could tell the catheter was bothering him because he limped a bit. In general, he was still fairly lethargic. We let him sleep in his dog bed that night instead of in his crate because we thought he'd be more comfortable that way and also he could wake us up easier if he needed to go out. He seemed to sleep well, though. He was still really tired Thursday morning and didn't want to eat, and in general he seemed rather miserable. When I called the vet that morning, they said I should bring him back in so he could get more fluids. So I took Seth to school and then took Snickers back to the vet where he spent another day getting fluids. When Frank and I picked him up last night, he looked a lot better and was acting like himself again. They sent home several medications that he has to take. It's kind of ridiculous because one medication has to be taken on an empty stomach (once a day), another one has to be taken with meals (twice a day), another one has to be taken 2 hours apart from any other medications (twice a day) and the last one has to be taken between 1:00 and 4:00 pm. Good grief!! I set up a schedule on my tablet with reminders, because otherwise I am sure I will forget to give him something!! Thankfully, one of the medications only has to be taken through Sunday. Two more of them he will have to take for 10 days. After that, we will be back to one medication once a day. It's going to be a "fun" 10 days, though!!

Snickers seemed to sleep well again last night but he was still pretty tired this morning. I had to hand feed him his breakfast again because he didn't really want to eat and I have also had to coax him to take his medicine. (I wrap it in cheese, which he loves, so usually he gobbles medicine right up.) So overall, he's still acting like he doesn't feel very well. I hope he doesn't get worse over the weekend. It's been a pretty stressful and very expensive couple of days.

 Here is Snickers yesterday morning, before I took him back to the vet:

He looks so sad, doesn't he?!

Well, there were a few other things that happened this week. Now that I have told you about the last couple of days I will go back to the beginning of the week.

Saturday was mostly a normal Saturday, with swimming lessons in the morning and the usual chores / homework / Cub Scouts routine. I was asked to help put together a musical number for Sacrament Meeting on March 11th, so I also spent some time on Saturday figuring out what song to sing and asking people to sing it. With help from the former ward choir director, I was able to pick out a song and order the music. I also got most of the people lined up who are going to sing. (I got in touch with the final two people on Sunday). We're going to do a SSA arrangement of "More Holiness Give Me", with two women singing each part.

Sunday we had church meetings as usual and I also had choir practice as usual. I ended up staying after church for a while so that those of us who are singing the musical number could go over it a bit. (After ordering the music, I was able to download copies of the music to use until the actual scores arrive.) For a first practice, I think it went really well and I think the song is going to be beautiful. That evening I had a meeting to start planning Cub Scout Day Camp for this summer. The Cub Committee Chair in our ward and I went to that together.

On Monday I volunteered at the school library for the morning. As usual, it wasn't very busy. A couple of girls came in to help shelve books but there weren't any books to shelve, so I had them change some of the book displays instead. That evening we went to Menchie's for family night treat (a frozen yogurt place) and ran into another family in our ward. They have twin daughters the same age as Seth, so he sat at their table with them.

I had to keep reminding him to eat, because he was talking so much! He got devil's food cake flavored frozen yogurt, and it looked a lot like cake batter:

On Tuesday I went to the temple. Frank took Seth to school so I could get an earlier start and go to the 10:00 session. (I usually miss that session by a few minutes if I go straight from dropping Seth off at school to the temple.) I still barely made it into the 10:00 session, though, because the traffic was so bad. (I left our house at 8:30 and it is supposed to be a 40 minute drive, but it was an hour and 20 minute drive that day.) The temple is really, really busy right now because this is the last week that it will be open until sometime in 2020. When I got to the temple the parking lot was half full and by the time I left it was completely full. (You usually see the parking lot full only on Friday nights or Saturdays, and even then it rarely fills all the way up. It's a big parking lot.) There were a lot more people in the hallways too and the session I was in was close to full. (Usually on a weekday during the day, a session might have about 20 people in it--or less!) It kind of reminds me of the things I've read about the Nauvoo Temple right before the saints left to go west--the temple being "thronged night and day" because people were trying to get their work done before they had to leave. It's the same at the Washington, DC Temple right now. I even heard some workers say that they were going to do a 10:30 session (normally, sessions are only held on the hour during the day on week days). We actually had a delay near the end of the session because the session before us wasn't done yet--I felt like I was back in the Provo Temple again!! ;) Anyway, it was wonderful to be in the temple and I will miss it terribly while it is closed but hope to make it to other temples as much as possible. After I finished the session, I had two family file names of women who needed to be sealed to their parents (one of them was the one I had just done the endowment for) so I went up to the sealing office to see if I could get those sealings done. It was really busy up there, too, but I was able to join a session that was already in progress and got those two sealings done too. There was a very sweet spirit in that session. When I came out, there were a ton more people waiting to do sealings, who had come in during the short time that I was in the sealing session. When I was picking up my family file cards on the way out, I heard a couple of workers talking about how busy they were. One of them, who was putting all the cards for ordinances that had been performed that day into the box so that patrons could pick them up on their way out, said "there are going to be a lot of happy families today". She was right--the box was much fuller than it usually is.

On Tuesday evening we had den meetings, as usual. The Wolves and the Bears met together and we put together and practiced our little skit about "Why Wolves Howl at the Moon". At the end, the Webelos came in and we performed our skit for them. Then the Webelos presented the clay sculptures that they had made in their den meeting. Our skit turned out really cute--even better than I expected. Here is the legend that the boys created: "One night, during the full moon, White Hawk was practicing hunting animals. He killed some animals but a ghost wolf came by and scared him away so he left the animals on the ground. Meanwhile, another wolf nearby had a dream that when the moon was full, animals fell from the moon to the ground. When the wolf woke up, he saw the dead animals and thought his dream was real. The next time there was a full moon, he watched and waited for animals to fall from the moon. When no animals fell, he started to call to them. The wolf told all the other wolves in the pack to call to the moon too. And that's why wolves howl at the moon." One little boy, who just moved in, was the narrator for the skit. He read the story while the other boys (along with two girls who belong to the assistant den leader) acted out the story. Here are a few pictures from during the skit, and a group shot afterwards:

Here is our new little boy, who was our narrator for the skit:

And here are the Webelos, showing us their clay sculptures:

On Wednesday, besides taking Snickers to the vet and picking him back up later (and waiting to hear updates on how he was doing), I also went to the religion class and that evening one of my visiting teachers came to see me. (They were both planning to come, but one of them had car trouble at the last minute.)

On Thursday, besides all the vet stuff, I also went visiting teaching.

Today since Seth didn't have school, we did some Cub Scout stuff and he did some homework. I had my ukulele class too. I still haven't started on the budget but I will be doing that next and I hope it won't take a long time.

In between everything else, I have been working on our taxes, reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, practicing the ukulele, exercising, and reading emails from 2008 (to help me remember things about Seth's developmental milestones). I have also had Seth doing a little bit of homework most days, and we have been reading the Percy Jackson book (The Son of Neptune) quite a bit.

Frank has had a very busy week with lots of work for clients in addition to his regular job. He is continuing to exercise and he is sticking to his diet. Go, Frank!!

Seth had something called "Outdoor School" on Tuesday and Thursday this week. It is a special program they do in our county for 5th Graders. They sent home a paper with a description of everything they were going to do, but I can't remember details anymore. According to Seth, on Tuesday they collected rock samples and "climbed a mountain". (Mountains out here are not the same as mountains out west!) On Thursday, they collected more rock samples and visited a rock quarry called Catoctin Furnace. They probably did more, but that's all Seth told me about. He did seem to really enjoy it--he was excited to show me his rocks and to tell me their names, and he asked if we could go back to the mountain (Sugarloaf Mountain, it's called) sometime so that he can hike it again. I am all for that!! Anything to get this boy outside and moving! I think we will wait until the weather warms up, though.

Speaking of the weather, it actually isn't all that cold. We haven't had any more 70 or 80 degree days, but we did have one day in the 60s this last week and most days were in the 50s, which is pretty good for late February / early March. Today it is in the 40s and with the strong winds it feels pretty cold, but still--I certainly can't complain about the winter we have had this year!

That is all I have to tell you about this week, and this post is pretty long so I will post it and move on to the budget. Wish me luck!

Weekly Review February 23 '18

I feel like I didn't get a lot accomplished this week--I'm not sure why. Here's the highlights of what we did this week:

Saturday: Seth had swimming lessons in the morning, as usual, and also as usual I cleaned the kitchen floor, worked on Cub Scouts with Seth, and Seth did some homework. Not as usual, I started working on our taxes. Sam was here visiting--he came on Friday evening. Our stake conference was last weekend so Frank had a leadership meeting that afternoon and we both had the adult session of stake conference that evening. Sam left to drive back home in the early afternoon because snow was predicted and he wanted to get ahead of the storm. It did snow, too. It started snowing not long after Sam left. By the time I drove to the stake center for my meeting, we had a couple of  inches of snow and it was a little hard to see the markings on the road. It didn't seem to be very slick, but I was a little worried what it would be like by the time we needed to head back home. However, it stopped snowing while we were in our meeting and the roads were actually more clear by the time we headed home. Meanwhile, the meeting was really good. We had Elder Wakolo of the Seventy visiting and he was a really good speaker. He really knows the scriptures! He was rattling off scriptures right and left without referring to any notes.

Sunday: Seth and I went to the general session of stake conference but Frank wasn't feeling well at all so he didn't go. His stomach was upset and he had a bad headache. They broadcast the meeting from the stake center to our ward building, so we were able to go to the meeting there. That was nice because it was a lot less crowded. The meeting was really good and Elder Wakolo gave another amazing talk and testimony. The rest of the day we just relaxed. I did some indexing and a lot of reading. I finished Dead End in Norvelt and read most of a book called Crispin Cross of Lead (another Newbery award winner--I finished it on Monday, and it was really good.) Frank rested a lot. He didn't feel well all day and he didn't feel great on Monday either but he was improving by then.

Monday: Seth didn't have school and Frank didn't have work because of President's Day. I helped Seth do some homework,  part of which involved doing a small science experiment with baking soda & vinegar:

I also got ready for the next day's den meeting by making these wolf ears (costumes for a skit):

Snickers went to the groomer and I got all the regular chores done. Frank got new tires for his car and we ran some other errands. Frank ended up doing quite a bit of work for clients. We had family night that evening, as usual.

Tuesday:  I volunteered at the school library in the morning. The rest of the day was mostly normal, except that it was very warm for February--we had temperatures up into the 70s!! When Seth got home from school we went to the park to do another science experiment which involved seeing how a person's weight affects how fast they slide down a slide. (We are doing these little experiments for homework, but they are also passing off part of an adventure for Cub Scouts. Nice to be able to do both at once!) That night we had den meetings--my group created a legend to explain "Why Wolves Howl at the Moon". Next week we are going to present our legend as a skit.

Wednesday: It was even warmer than Tuesday, with a high of 82! I am not complaining about that at all. It was so nice to have a couple of beautiful days like that in February. I took Snickers on a walk both days. On Wednesday morning I also took Snickers to the vet. The vet called us last Friday night to tell us about the results of his blood work and his urine test, both of which weren't good. He has blood in his urine again (which means he probably has another stone) and his liver enzyme numbers are back up again too. So on Wednesday he had his annual check up but he also had another test done on his blood which involved taking his blood, feeding him (he was fasting when I brought him in) and then taking his blood again two hours later so I had to leave him at the vet's for a while. We don't have the results of that test yet. He also has to have an ultrasound next week. (This is pretty much all the stuff we had to do last year.) He's on a new medication for his liver now and we are feeding him a smaller amount because he gained over 3 pounds since September.  I ended up having to go back to pick Snickers up right around the time the religion class starts, so I didn't end up going to the class this week. That evening I had book chat, where we discussed The Scarlet Letter. It was a pretty lively discussion. We also had cheese fondue and chocolate fondue (with lots of things to dip in them) which has become a tradition for the month of February. Now we are reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which I don't expect to be a happy book but I'll probably learn a lot from it. I've read the first chapter so far, and it's really good.

Thursday: It was a lot cooler than the previous two days, although it is still in the 50s so it's still pretty nice for February. We have had quite a bit of rain the last couple of days too. I mostly did the usual things but I didn't get a lot of extra stuff done because I spent my free time talking to Jared and reading to Seth. Please keep Jared in your prayers. He's doing okay but he is dealing with a lot of stuff. Seth and I finished reading The Lost Hero, which is the first book in the Percy Jackson follow-up series. It took us a long time to get through that book--not because we didn't enjoy it, but because we got distracted a lot and went for long periods of time without reading. We started the second book last night but only read a couple of chapters because Seth was really wired last night and wasn't listening very well.

Friday: Today I spent a lot of the day updating the budget. I was supposed to have my ukulele class this morning but the other lady who is taking the class with me couldn't make it so we decided to meet next week instead. I did practice the ukulele, though (as I have most days). I also talked to Tanner for a while today and he seems to be doing well. Frank and I went out to dinner tonight without Seth--it was nice to go on a date! Seth had a field trip at school today--they went to the Natural History Museum in DC. He had a good time. 

Frank had a busy week. He worked at his office most days this week and he had a lot of work to do for clients also. He had his annual review at work and it was pretty good. He has applied for a couple of positions at Marriott but the interviews won't be happening for a while. He has continued to be very disciplined about his diet and about exercising and he is getting comments from people that he looks thinner--especially people that he hasn't seen for a while. I don't notice the change as much since I see him every day but he does look a little thinner to me too.

I meant to work on our taxes this week but never got to them. Hopefully I will do better with that this coming week! I started reading another Newbery winner called The Story of Mankind. It is pretty long and I plan to read a couple of chapters a day until I finish it, so it will probably take a while. I have been preparing some things so I can start doing some of the assessments in the Disconnected Kids book with Seth soon. I have been reading some of my weekly letters from the year he was born to find out more information about his development as a baby, because I need that information for part of the assessments. It's been interesting to read those letters--my life was a lot more hectic back then!! It wasn't easy having older kids and a baby at the same time. I'd kind of forgotten that, and at the time I don't think I noticed too much--just reading about it now makes me tired!! I'm glad we made it through those days.

That's all I can think of to tell you about this week so as soon as the internet comes back up, I will post this!

Weekly Review February 16 '18

Here's our report for this week:

Friday: As I mentioned in last week's post, we had the Blue & Gold Banquet on Friday evening. It turned out really well, with plenty of yummy food, awards for the boys, and the slide show was a hit! Making that slide show was a lot of work, but seeing the delight of the boys as they watched it made it worth it. Plus, as I was putting it together it made me feel happy to see all of the things we did throughout the year. Sometimes I feel like we don't do much, but then when I see all the pictures from the various den meetings and activities, and think "Hey, we actually did a lot of cool things!" I really enjoy working in Cub Scouts--it is a lot of fun!

The tables all set up for the banquet. In the background, you can see the Cubs clustered around the television watching the slide show I put together.

The Cubs helped us (the den leaders) make these cute "campfire" centerpieces.

One of my "Bears" during the flag ceremony.

My other "Bear" during the flag ceremony.

All the Cubs (a few of them weren't able to make it.)

Boys holding up the cakes they decorated:

This one had a "campfire" made out of fruit roll ups and pirouette cookies.

 
This one had a campsite with large Bear cakes and graham cracker tents.

Seth's cake was decorated with trees, the moon, a large rock with a bear coming out a cave & a wolf on top of the rock, howling at the moon.

This "cake" was made out of rice krispy treats and as you can see it was in the shape of the Olympic rings.

 This cake had sprinkles on top, a light shining underneath, and it tasted delicious!  (Actually, they were all good--I had a little sliver of each one.)

For the dinner part, we had a taco bar which was a hit with everybody. After we got home from the banquet, we watched part of the Olympics opening ceremony before going to bed.

Saturday: We did mostly the usual things--Seth had swimming lessons in the morning. His regular teacher was sick so he had a different teacher, but he knew her because she's in our ward and we actually give her rides to church a lot. When we got back from swimming, Seth took a shower and I worked on some Cub Scout things with him. Then I took him to his friend Krish's house to play for the afternoon. Frank was gone all morning and into the afternoon doing work for a client. I did some Cub Scout planning and cleaned the kitchen floor and did some more patching of walls in the upstairs bedroom.

Sunday: We had church as usual and I did some indexing. After church Frank took a nap because he hadn't slept well at all the night before. I read to Seth for a couple of hours--we are still reading one of the Percy Jackson books (the first book in the follow up series). We are taking a long time to get through it because we aren't reading very consistently but we made quite a bit of progress on Sunday. It was nice to have a relaxing evening.

Monday: It was mostly a normal day with the usual Monday chores, but I was kind of having a nervous break down over Jared's health insurance situation (long story--basically, I was worried we were going to get charged $500 for the student health insurance plan even though he doesn't need it because he's covered by our health insurance). We finally got that worked out, though (with Jared's help) and we are not going to have to pay for the student health insurance. That day I also sanded the bedroom walls again--the places I had patched on Saturday. Frank had a follow up doctor appointment and they were very pleased with his blood sugar level, which is back in the normal range. They told him "just keep doing what you are doing!" He did finally get an appointment with the dietitian but it's not until sometime in March. For family night activity we played Clue and we had some Valentine treats. Finding treats that Frank can eat is a bit of challenge, but I am learning that not all sugary things are equal. Some treats have a lot fewer carbohydrates than others, so I try to find things that are on the low end of the spectrum. He can have sugar sometimes, just not a lot. He is still being really disciplined and eating mostly vegetables and meat.

Tuesday: This day was super busy. A friend and I went to the temple in the morning. We just barely managed to squeak into the 10:00 session, which was nice (usually I just miss the 10:00 session and have to wait an hour for the next session). The trip to the temple took all morning and into the early afternoon. Then I had just an hour or so to get all the usual chores done before I had to pick up Seth from school. I didn't get everything done, but I got most of it done. When Seth got home he had some homework to do and we had dinner before going to den meetings. For den meeting, my boys made dream catchers (we are working on an adventure about Native Americans). There is only one Wolf right now (I like to think of him as the lone wolf!) so he met with my boys. Since I only have 2 boys and one of them was sick on Tuesday, we actually had more leaders than we had boys. (There is one den leader for the Wolves, one for the Bears, and an assistant den leader who helps both of us.) Actually, the Wolf den leader just got released on Sunday and a new one was called so it was her first week as a den leader, also.

Seth doing homework:

Making dream catchers:

Wednesday: I did the usual stuff, including going to religion class. I also went to visit my friend Wanda and took her some Valentine treats. Her parents were visiting her too, though, so I only stayed for a few minutes. We gave Seth a card and some candy and Frank and I got each other cards. Frank also got me some beautiful flowers and some huge chocolate truffles:

I sent cards to my other boys, too, but since I forgot to put them in the mail until Monday, they probably didn't get them in time for Valentine's Day. Maybe they got them by today. I did get to talk to Scott that evening because he called me when he was on his way home from work.

Thursday: We have had a lot of rain the last couple of days and yesterday the temperatures got up into the low 70s! Wow, it was nice! I took Snickers on a long walk because you just have to spend some time outside if it is 70 degrees in February. I had a really busy day because besides all the usual chores, I also took Snickers to the vet and did some shopping for my friend Wanda (she needed a few hygiene items like shampoo but she can't get to the store right now since her broken hip is still healing). Snickers had to go to the vet because they wanted to do a urinalysis and some more blood work to see how his liver is doing and if there is any sign of any more bladder stones. We won't have the results from those tests back for a while but while we were there they also weighed him and he has gained over 3 pounds since September, so that is a concern. We might be changing his diet again. I have to take him in next week for a check up so we can figure out what's going on. (He was almost due for his annual check up anyway so it's just a little earlier than normal.) I am bracing myself for another big hit to the wallet. His annual check up is always expensive, and if there are any problems it gets even more expensive. Frank didn't get home until nearly 11:00 last night because after work he had to go do some work for a client. I went to the monthly RS Meeting, where we talked about the 5 Love Languages and had a chocolate fountain.

Friday: Today has been really busy too. I updated the budget as usual, but I also went to lunch with Frank and another couple in our ward. (We went to Golden Corral so that Frank had healthy options like salads to choose from.) Seth got out of school 2 hours early today so we went right from lunch to pick him up. I got to talk to Amy for a while today which was nice because we don't get to talk very often anymore. This evening I took dinner to a single lady who is a friend of a sister in our ward. This lady has been in the hospital so it is hard for her to cook for herself right now. It was a little challenging coming up with what to make her because she can't have salt, but I am getting better at cooking for people with dietary restrictions. :) The rest of us ate leftovers for dinner because a lot of things have been accumulating in the refrigerator. My produce drawers are always full now--I am buying a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables than I used to buy. I am starting to enjoy doing things like making stir frys from fresh vegetables. It does feel good to eat healthier! Today was pretty mild also and we got some more rain but tomorrow it is supposed to snow. Crazy weather! Still, I am not complaining because I prefer crazy back-and-forth weather to it being freezing cold for weeks on end.

I have been diligently exercising and practicing the ukulele on an almost daily basis. I have been reading quite a bit this week too. I haven't read any more of Disconnected Kids; I've been focused on finishing Dead End in Norvelt. It is kind of a crazy story, but I am enjoying it.

Frank got news at work this week which isn't the greatest, but hopefully it will turn out well in the end. They are doing a lot of reorganizing in the IT departments and everyone has to re-post for their positions and a lot of positions are going to be eliminated or moved around. Although his position may be eliminated, he still has the option to apply for many other positions so hopefully in the end he will still have a job with Marriott, although he may not be doing exactly the same thing. Of course, there is the possibility that he will be out of a job, though. So naturally that is a bit stressful but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. The last time this happened, he actually ended up with a much better position than he had before so we can hope that this time things will end up okay as well.

That is all the news from our neck of the woods.

Weekly Review February 9 '18

We had another busy week. Here is what we did:

Friday: It was super cold and windy and I tried not to go anywhere unless I had to! Normally, that would mean just taking Seth to school and picking him up again but when Frank suggested that we go out for some dinner and then go buy me a new phone, I agreed. That's how badly I needed a new phone!! We are not going to be eating out very much because of Frank's diabetes, but he wanted to see if he could get something while eating out that would not be over his carb allowance for the meal. He did manage to keep under by ordering a salad and only eating a few of the chips they brought us for an appetizer. he said the salad was pretty good, too. Seth and I ate a lot more carbs than he did, but I am trying to eat fewer carbs too. After dinner we went to the Sprint store to get my phone--I had already looked online and figured out which phone I wanted to get. It IS nice, especially the fact that I now get all the text messages people send me. I just would have really preferred to keep the old one if it hadn't been for the text message problems it was having.

Saturday: Seth had swimming lessons in the morning as usual. He also had a second lesson in the afternoon, which isn't usual but it was a make up lesson for the one he missed last week when he was sick. I took him to his first lesson and Frank took him to his second lesson because I had a hair appointment scheduled. The rest of the day was busy helping Seth with Cub scouts and a project for school, cleaning the kitchen floor, and working for a long time on the slide show for Cub scouts.

Sunday: Frank had ward council as usual, but while he was there it started snowing. The forecast was for more snow, turning into freezing rain around the time our meetings started. Our bishop decided to hold only Sacrament Meeting so that people who weren't comfortable driving on icy roads wouldn't need to come. (One of the other wards in our building cancelled all of their meetings.) So we only had Sacrament Meeting and there were a smaller number of people there than usual but we still had a pretty decent group show up. It was nice to come home earlier than usual and have a long, relaxing afternoon / evening, although I missed going to Sunday School and Relief Society. Frank was really tired so he took a nap. I read a lot, and finished the book I was reading (Moon Over Manifest). I really enjoyed it. I did some indexing also.

Monday: The freezing rain changed to rain later on Sunday but then it got colder and all the water on the roads froze, so we had a 2 hour delay for school on Monday morning. It was mostly a normal day except I went to lunch with some friends to celebrate our friend Renata's birthday. That evening Seth worked on his project for school, which is about cells (plant and animal cells). He had to build a 3-D model of either a plant or animal cell, so I had him start on the model. I was pleasantly surprised that in a short amount of time (probably less than an hour) he had built the whole model. He seemed to enjoy himself, too! (He built it out of clay.) I was expecting that part of the project to take longer, so that was really nice. He had already done most of the written packet which was the other part of the project so that meant that he was almost done with the whole thing. Over the next couple of days, all he had to do was fix a couple of things he had done incorrectly, label a couple of diagrams, and become familiar enough with the functions of all the different parts that he can explain them clearly when he presents his project. The project was due today so it was nice to get done with it early!

Tuesday: This day was also a pretty normal day (and it was the only day besides today that Seth had a full day of school). Besides all the usual chores, I also worked on filling out Tanner's FAFSA and got it done. I started on Jared's FAFSA also, although it is highly unlikely he will be going to school the 2018-19 school year. I just decided it would be better to fill one out, just in case. We didn't have den meetings because we have the Blue & Gold Banquet tonight, but I spent all evening working on the slide show for the Banquet. It took a lot longer than I expected to get it done this year, mostly because I had a lot more pictures.

Wednesday: We got a little bit of snow overnight and in the morning we were getting freezing rain. The freezing rain was supposed to last until about noon, so school was cancelled for the day. I didn't have the religion class either, although that was because the teacher was out of town, not because of the weather. Seth only had a little bit to do for his cell project but he also has a lot of other work he needs to get done at home because he's not getting enough done at school. (Every five weeks, they send home all the things that he didn't get done and he has to complete them at home.) So I went over all of that with him and figured out what we need to do to get it done. He has to do a lot of "practical life" things which includes things like sewing, baking, housework, yardwork, and community service so on Wednesday Frank helped him make some muffins and on Thursday I had him do vacuuming and laundry. Anyway, Frank and I got the Walmart shopping done also and I worked a bunch more on the slide show. I got it all done except the music part, which I needed Jared's help to complete. Frank had his monthly PPI with our bishop that night.

Ice encrusted trees:

We had a pretty sunset that night:

Thursday: Mostly it was a normal day. Besides the usual chores, I finished Jared's FAFSA (I had to go to our storage unit to get out some of his financial papers in order to do that) and Jared got onto my computer that night and added music to the Cub scout slide show, so it is finished. Frank and Seth baked a cake which they will be decorating this afternoon--it's for the Blue & Gold Banquet. There was another 2 hour delay that morning because once again the roads froze over in the night and were very icy.

Friday: There was a normal school schedule today!! I don't feel like I've been very productive yet today, though. I woke up later than I usually do so I've been running behind my normal schedule. After I finish this post, I need to update the budget (there isn't a lot to do today, thankfully) and then I have my ukulele class this afternoon. After I pick up Seth from school, we will be busy getting everything ready for the Blue & Gold Banquet.

Frank has been very disciplined about his eating all week and his blood sugar levels are really good. He has also been doing light jogging every day (except Sunday) and he has lost about 7 or 8 pounds since he went to the doctor less than 2 weeks ago. We still haven't been able to get in to see the dietitian, even though we have left a couple of messages. That is frustrating, but in the meantime he has just been eating a lot of vegetables and some meat and other proteins, and avoiding things like bread, pasta, and sweets. He has had small amounts of a lower carb bread and some rice. Anyway, it seems to be working since he is losing weight and his blood sugar is back in the normal range. It has been a bit challenging for me to plan meals but hopefully that will get easier over time. I am noticing that the cost of groceries has definitely increased (mainly because we are eating more meat  and seafood than we usually do, and the leaner cuts of meat are more expensive) but Frank is not eating out for lunch nearly as much (hardly at all now; before he was eating out 3 -4 times per week for lunch) so hopefully in the end it will balance out somewhat.

I started reading another Newbery winning book this week called Dead End in Norvelt. So far, I am not very far into it but it is pretty entertaining. I have also been reading the book called Disconnected Kids (the one about treating ADHD) and I've made it to the part that teaches me how to assess my child. I haven't started doing the assessments on Seth yet, but the more I read this book, the more I realize how much I want Seth to have a more normal life than what he does now. The medicine he takes helps him focus and be calmer, but he is almost too calm when he is on it. He really isn't "Seth". Also, there are many social situations where the medicine has worn off and it's at those times that I can see how "not normal" he really is, when it comes to his behavior and being able to interact with other people. In the last few years I have somewhat come to accept that this is how he is and we are just going to have to cope with it / keep trying to find things that help him. But it really does hurt me when I see his behavior around his peers because I know his behavior is keeping him from developing good friendships. I worry a lot about his future and how he is going to get along in the world because he struggles with relationships, lacks empathy, and really can't seem to grasp that he is responsible for his actions. And yes--he can just be very difficult to live with sometimes! In the book, there are many testimonials from parents about the change they have seen in their children--dramatic change, in many instances. I am hopeful that we will be able to help Seth change, too. We did start doing the written assessments this week (just not the actual physical assessments of Seth yet). Frank and I, independent from one another, filled out a form with our observations of Seth's behavior, academics, physical health, etc. We did have some differences, but we mostly marked all of the same things. What we have done so far indicates that it IS very likely that he has a right brain deficiency, which means his right brain is lagging behind his left brain and therefore a lot of the connections between the two sides that should be there aren't there. It's going to take a lot of time to get through all of this stuff, but if we can help him change it will be totally worth it!

Just one note about Jared as I finish up--he called on Wednesday because he was having a hard day. It was February 7th, which is the day he went into the MTC last year. He was feeling pretty bad about being home instead of on his mission still, and worrying a bit about when he can go back, and also realizing that as much as he wants to go back, going back is going to be hard too. So please keep him in your prayers.

That is all I have to report this week!