2014 :: week 38

September 21

It was hard to capture, but Lauren was very animated as she led us in two songs she had sung in nursery earlier that day. Lauren loves to sing and she loves being in charge so she was having a great time. Her current favorites are "Popcorn Popping" and "Book of Mormon Stories."

September 22

Will got new glasses! He picked out the frames himself. He really wanted blue because all his favorite sports teams are blue--Royals, Red Sox and BYU Cougars. His prescription only changed slightly but these new lenses seem to have improved his vision. His (baseball) hitting has really improved since he got the new glasses. In this picture Will is practicing writing letters in his work book, which he often does while I am making dinner or working in the kitchen.

September 16

We got a new furnace installed on Tuesday. It was such a relief to get it in and to have the search and decision-making over. A few weeks ago we had a plumber come fix a leaky toilet and broken valve (which we have since learned we probably could have done ourselves). When he went into our basement to turn off our water he noticed some condensation from our AC leaking into our furnace and suggested we get it checked out. We did and found out that in addition to some rusting, the heat exchange was cracked. This is dangerous because it can cause carbon monoxide to leak into our house. Because our furnace was 18 years old it made more sense to replace the entire furnace instead of just the heat exchange. Over the past two weeks we meet with several consultants from various HVAC companies who told us a variety of conflicting things that we HAD to get done with prices ranging from $2500-$9500. I hate spending money so it has been a stressful few weeks with the decision hanging over our heads. We feel good about the choice we made and are so relieved to get the new one in before it gets cold. Oh, and that we didn't turn on our furnace this winter and die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

September 17

And so it begins, the trees in our yard have begun to shed. At this point it is mostly acorns. Occasionally, when the wind blows it sounds like someone is throwing a handful of rocks at the back of our house when half a dozen or more acorns fall off and hit our deck at once. Every other day we sweep them off the porch as the acorns are hazardous to small feet who "forget" to put shoes on when they go out back.

September 18

I found a small bike at a garage sale while out walking Thursday afternoon and ran home as fast as I could to get some money so I could buy it. I've been looking for a bike that Will could use to practice riding all summer and really wanted to get a 12 inch bike. I was about to cave in and buy a bike online, so I felt like this was a tender mercy because I was feeling stressed about money after all the unplanned expenses we've had this past month (furnace and car repairs).

September 19

On Friday we had lunch with the Diggins. The kids had a fabulous time playing together. It was the first playdate we've had in awhile where there were no fights and everyone shared, took turns and generally got along. Of course I had to ruin the good feelings we had as we were driving home when I shut Lauren's fingers in the window. In my defense she kept yelling "All the way closed!" while her fingers were stuck, so I kept hitting the up button over and over thinking she wanted me to close it all the way. Apparently she meant, she wanted it all the way OPEN as her fingers were stuck inside. Other than a nice blood blister and some Mommy-guilt everyone has recovered.

September 20

Saturday we spent in the temple with our friends Lori and Vince. Lori and I work together on the RS activities committee, but we got to know them better over the summer as they came to temple prep class. They asked us to be their escorts as they went to the temple for the first time to receive their endowments and then were sealed to each other. It was a great day!