It's only the middle of the week

I'm writing despite the fact the week hasn't ended yet. Nothing much has happened, I just thought I should put down the nothing much.

Monday, after arriving home from work, I found my wife quite busy preparing a vegetable pizza that is a good appetizer type of dish for us to go to the Empty Nesters that night. It was over at the Wallace house. We arrived at the designated time and there were a few goodies hanging about which we all enjoyed. We mostly visited and talked about various things in our lives (both past and present) and had a good time with just being around people.

Sister Wallace then pulled out some bells. We then played songs with these bells with a chart that she had up so we could play them. We didn't do well, but we did OK on some. I had two bells that were hardly used (hence we did OK). There was a bit more visiting and then we came on home.

Tuesday night, I was able to go with the kids over to the church and then to Temple Square with the Young Men and Young Women. I teased our son that I must be cuter than him because I had a car full of girls (along with one leader). He told me that it was because I had the car that could take the most and they could be with their friends. Anyway, it wasn't too cold outside and we enjoyed our time there at the temple grounds in Salt Lake. The Christmas lights were nice.

On my way home from work I ran a couple of errands including getting a radio for my wife. I had to actually read instructions to see how it ran. I did get it going finally. That was good. My wife went to a Relief Society dinner/social tonight. I sat down to watch Star Trek. It was an OK movie, but it wasn't all that great. I enjoyed it although I got interrupted by my Mother-in-Law who wanted to talk. That made it so the movie had to go later into the evening, but I was glad to do it.

Well, that's about it. Like I said, not much to tell.

Sick Time and such

Well, not too much has been going on this week. I have kept myself somewhat busy, but not too.

Tuesday evening I was with the Scouts while they were working on their Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. Brother Goodner taught them and was quite entertaining. It wasn't too bad for the boring merit badge. Some of the boys went out with the Scoutmaster to go over some of their Eagle stuff to get that all taken care of. To end, we went into the gym where the older boys were playing a game of dodge ball-tag or something. There were two balls and when you got hit you went to the floor where you were and then you could try to catch a ball to get somebody else out to take your place. You could also tag them and exchange places with them. This goes on until all but one are down. It was a pretty fun game.

Not much happened Wednesday or Thursday out of the ordinary. Friday, I got home and my wife and I went out to get new luggage. We got a bit more expensive set, but it looked like it would hold up better than some of the other types. We'll soon see. We were also able to go out and get a bite to eat. Our daughter was baby-sitting, and our son was left home to his own devices. I think he enjoys being home alone. I was starting to feel the effects of a cold on Friday night, but didn't think it would be bad.

My wife and I started to watch a movie, and soon my nose started a bleed. This has happened periodically, and it is hard to stop since I am on Plavix (a blood thinner). It kept on going and going and going and going ... Well you get the idea. My wife decided to stay out on the couch rather than come to bed with me because I was about to have a miserable night. It just continued on. Around 4:00 in the morning, I took some loratadine and that seemed to help a little bit, but didn't completely stop it. I got up after getting no sleep and waited till about 9:00 AM and then headed to a place that has doctors on a Saturday. That was very little help. He said that with a cold and Plavix this sometimes happens. He could cauterize it, but that likely wouldn't help with the way he does it. He said the ER's have different equipment and can do it a different way, but that it was no slowing down. I got a prescription for an anti-biotic and went home around noon. My nose just kept on going and going. Nothing I could do about it. Finally, Saturday evening, I took a Benedryl generic and that seemed to help stop some stuff, although I slept through it because of the drug. I woke up Sunday morning with an alarm and was glad that it was over. I still wasn't feeling very well though and stayed home from church.

Other than that it was kind of a regular Sunday. I pulled the kids out into the family room for a few minutes and we went over the 1st chapter of the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. We will be reading that for a couple of weeks till we get through the five chapters. We don't want to simply read it, but want to understand it as best we can.

Tonight, my throat is barely sore and I am feeling a lot better. I will be able to go into work tomorrow.

Oh, and how can I forget. It snowed over night. It was a slushy heavy snow even though it was only a couple of inches. I think since I hadn't eaten all night and into the morning, plus being out of shape, I couldn't help my son much. I got winded too fast. I am grateful that our son is helping out with this. I don't know what I would do without him. We did get the opportunity to go out again later and shovel again. It was still heavy, but not as heavy as the first one, but I was able to stay out with him. I was a bit winded by the end though. Later still, I went for a walk with my wife. The boots I have felt kind of heavy on my feet. I am out of shape and need to start to work on that.

Looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Dads Birthday

Not only is today the day we remember Pearl Harbor, but it is my dads birthday. I know, it's not a disaster like Pearl Harbor is, but it is an easy way to remember his birthday.

I really didn't know what to get my father for his birthday. My wife didn't like me getting the same old stuff that we always get. I finally decided that a John Wayne DVD might be in order. I was able to get one with a whole bunch of westerns on it, and another set of DVD's stuck out as something funny to get him. I can't remember the exact title but it was a western about old timers riding again. My dad did get the joke, so that was a good thing.

When I got home, I found that our son had gone outside and shoveled the walks. I was grateful for this. I brought home some pizza, so we ate that and tried to get our daughter to do her homework which just got put off. We finally left to go to my fathers house dropping our dog off at the in-laws home. There was the regular banter at my fathers house with my family, and then we had to leave. It was a bit early, but our daughter had to finish her homework. She wasn't happy that we were leaving so early, but there was nothing we could do about that. We did find out that Derek is engaged to get married and is planning on the date of April 14th (which is my parents 60th wedding anniversary).

We got home and I did what I could to help our daughter get her homework done. I think we got her enough information to get it done. It is snowing tonight, and I am sure there will be more shoveling tomorrow. Well, that's it.

Shopping and other stuff

Now matter how hard I try to write more in here, a whole week seems to go by before I end up writing. I guess, I should just give up and assume I will write here weekly.

Now, for the week. Nothing much happened on Monday. Tuesday night was spent with me at the church with the Scouts while they were going through their Emergency Preparedness merit badge. They kept on getting a little out of hand until Scott told them he would just leave and they wouldn't get their merit badge. What's with these kids.

Wednesday was my works annual Christmas party. We went to Gardner Village again this year (just like last year). There was a nice Christmas dinner and I even had some of the Salmon. It wasn't as bad as I remember it being, but I still didn't like it too much. I figure I should have fish every now and again as it is supposed to be healthy for you. A lot of prizes were given out and there were a lot of good ones. My coworker ended up getting a 32" TV. I got a $50 gift card to Smiths. I decided that it was a good thing there is a Smiths Marketplace with that type of a gift card.

On my way home from the party, I stopped into Smiths to see about purchasing a GPS. I knew I would have to put some money towards it but the only one I could come close to really affording (and feeling good about it) was a TomTom. I preferred the Garmin though and so I didn't purchase one at all. I went home with the $50 still in tact.

That night, I went out with my son to look for a TV that would be $150 or under. I didn't know if we could find one, but he had $100 and we told him we could loan him the rest. He also informed us that we had $25 of his dollars for Christmas from my mom. We went to Smiths first to see if we could use the card. There was nothing there. We then went to Radio Shack and then to an RC Willey outlet that was by there. There was one TV there that was at the $150 level. It was called Prizmo. I knew nothing about it and asked if it was an RC Willey brand, but they really didn't know. I then asked who it was made by, and after some searching they told me that it was from a company called Red Rock Solutions in Las Vegas. My son wanted to buy it because it was in his price range. I told him to hold out because we know nothing about this brand.

We went to Shopko, Sears, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and another Radio Shack. We also stopped into a game stop because he was also willing to spend that money on a game for the Wii called Rock Band. There was a Rock Band in game stop, but then we went into the Radio Shack next door. They had one TV that was for $152. It was marked down from about $170 (sale price) because it was the last one. It was Radio Shacks name brand and I asked if they would give a two year warranty that they sell for $40 to me for nothing or for half price. He told me I would have to talk to the manager and he would probably have to talk with the District Manager to get that. I told him I could wait. My son kind of wanted to buy it, because once again, it was in his price range. I told him that we could probably find one for the $150 but it may take some time. I didn't like the display if it didn't have an extended warranty on it. I did tell him it was his money and if that's what he wanted to do, to go ahead. I put enough of a worry in his head that he said he would just go buy that rock band. I told him that now he was just buying for the sake of buying because he knew that he would use a TV more than he would rock band. All of these TV's were 19".

On the way home from there, I had the bright idea to stop in at Big Lots, which was on our way home. What should we find in there, but a 15.4" TV for $140. With tax, that came to just under the $150 price range. My son thought that was perfect. And, to top it all off, it was a brand name we recognized (Coby). Well, we bought it and came on home. It was a long night looking for this. But, it did everything he was hoping it would do. Not only does he get TV, but he can use it as a monitor for his little computer. He can play Netflix on the thing. We have even watched a movie on it with him in the room with us.

Not too much went on Thursday. I didn't go into work on Friday. Instead, my wife and I went out and did a little bit of shopping and then went to lunch. Nothing else really to tell about there.

Saturday, we were able to sleep in a bit. There were the usual chores around the house and the kids cleaned their rooms. Our daughter wanted to put some flowers in her room that I had bought her the previous night because of something I said to her and had to apologize for. I think we got that all worked out. I was just plain and simply out of line.

Our son was called Saturday morning and told that he had to give a lesson on Sunday. He tried to refuse, but the Young Men leader is hard to put off. He told us that he wasn't going to give the lesson. I told him that if that was the case, he needed to call him back up and tell him he wouldn't and hold to his guns, otherwise they are looking to you to give the lesson. After some arguing, I went in and gave him a basic outline of how I would do the lesson that he was to give and let him work with it. Part of the problem is that he heard a young man with the Young Men leader criticizing his last lesson because he had read it and then the following week there was a lesson on how to not read the lesson when you are given one to do. At least we kind of resolved that issue.

That night, we went to the Ward Christmas party. There was dinner, the Bingham madrigals, and Santa Claus. It was a pretty good party. During that party the bishop came up to me and asked if I was giving a lesson on Sunday. I told him that would be our son. He then told him he needed an abbreviated lesson about Christ (that was what it was on) and then to tie it in to the Sacrament so the Bishop and Brother Nelson could take over from there. I could see the discouragement in my sons eyes. I told him that it just got easier for him and he could just do the scripture references, do the tie in and then turn it over to the Bishop. That seemed to work for him.

Sunday, we all got up and got ready for church. I went to priesthood meeting and then got held up late in there talking with the leaders. I completely missed Sunday School. We then went to Sacrament meeting. The new guy (that had been baptized and the reason for my sons lesson being the way it was) was introduced as a new member and then he was put in to receive the Aaronic priesthood. He was then put in as a new ward mission leader. That seems strange but good to me for a new member, but it is also strange because he is only sixteen years old. Could be interesting.

Well, that's the week.