Weekly Review December 23 '22

 Brrrrrr!!! It is so cold right now. It is 16 degrees, but very windy so it feels like -1 degrees. I know it's a lot worse in other parts of the country, but that is really cold for this part of the country. 

We are on the mend and consequently we had a lot more going on this week than last week. Last Saturday I was able to help with the sewing class. I think it went really well...I helped one girl cut out the pieces for her skirt because she missed the last class while other women helped the rest of the girls start sewing their skirts. The girls are doing a good job and I think many of them will finish early (we have two more classes scheduled). I also got the kitchen floor swept & mopped for the first time in a month which was great (between sickness and traveling I hadn't had a chance to do it in a while). I was pretty tired after doing those things so I spent the evening sitting down...but I was still productive. I sort of watched the BYU bowl game while I addressed all the Christmas cards. We're glad BYU pulled off a win, and the new quarterback looks pretty good too.

Frank started coughing a lot on Friday and he had a really terrible cough on Saturday so he decided he'd better stay home from church on Sunday. He continued to cough a lot on Sunday (he could barely talk without coughing) and early this week but his cough has finally diminished. He was able to work from home on Monday and Tuesday and didn't go back to the office until Wednesday. 

Seth and I did go to church (wearing masks), and I went to choir practice too but Seth didn't help with the Sacrament and we didn't stay for the 2nd hour. We were trying to minimize our contact with other people, plus I was pretty tired after the first hour ended. I came home and took a 2 1/2 hour nap!! We were supposed to go caroling with the rest of the Ward Council members and their families but we didn't do that either. 

On Monday I was feeling mostly back to normal and I had a very busy day with lots of errands. I'm still not sure how I managed to get so much done! Besides the regular grocery shopping, laundry, and vacuuming, I also went to the post office to mail a package (long wait), returned a library book, went to a local store to get some gifts for the sister missionaries who will be at our house on Christmas Eve, went to another place looking for gifts, made copies of the Christmas letter, wrapped some gifts, and got all the Christmas cards ready to mail (mostly that meant folding the Christmas letter and adding it to all the envelopes). We were getting ready to have family night when Jared texted us to say they and the Hatch family were going to downtown Frederick to walk around for a while and we could meet them there if we wanted. (Jared & Jessie arrived here on Sunday.) We decided to do that for family night. We also stopped on the way at the post office to drop off all the Christmas cards. In downtown Frederick at Carroll Creek Park this time of year there are a bunch of small decorated boats. We saw those, and then walked around looking at the shops and more lights for a while. It was really cold, so we didn't stay out very long. It was nice to see Jared & Jessie and to visit with the Hatch family a bit also.

On Tuesday I wasn't feeling so great (maybe because I did too much on Monday!!) I got the regular chores done but because I had a sore throat, headache, and some congestion, I decided not to attend the YW activity that evening. I was really sorry to miss it, but I really needed some rest and I was also worried about getting other people sick (even though I should have been past the contagious stage by then). My class was in charge of the activity but I had already got everything ready so it was easy to pass it off to the class president. For the activity, we had a "Secret Santa" gift exchange. About a week and a half earlier, we had each drawn the name of one other person in YW (either a YW or a leader). We were supposed to secretly contact a friend or family member of that person and get some information about that person that we would share with everyone else. We were also supposed to bring a wrapped gift for that person to give them at the activity. So basically, everyone had someone else do a mini spotlight on them and everyone got a gift. As I said, I was sorry to miss it!! I hear it went really well. I sent the gift that I had prepared with Frank; I sent the refreshments I had purchased with him too. The YW who drew my name wanted to give my gift to me in person, so she stopped by yesterday to give it to me. She is very artistic, and she had purchased a dozen little glass ornaments and had painted flowers on them. Isn't that sweet?! Here are a few of them on our tree:

The YM played a game that was a combination basketball / Nerf gun war. Some of the YM and YW and leaders were not able to attend that night (besides me) because a number of members of our bishop's family and one of the YW president's kids all tested positive for Covid that morning. Ugh!! It's going around yet again. I don't think any of them caught Covid from us, though, because we hadn't had any close contact with any of them since before we tested positive for Covid. (Plus they are 2 weeks behind us, so it seems like they would have come down with it sooner if they had caught it from us.) I feel really bad for them...it was bad enough for us to come down with it a couple of weeks before Christmas. Less than a week before would be the worst!!

Anyway, I didn't mention yet that Jared came over for a while on Tuesday and hung out with me while I did chores (and he helped a little bit). Jessie got a new job that starts in January but she went in for training that day, so he dropped her off and then came over here while she was at her training. When she finished (around lunch time) he picked her up and they came back here for a few hours to visit some more. 

I was feeling better on Wednesday (although I still have a sore throat every morning!!) I made fudge that day and also made the peanut butter balls for buckeyes (but we didn't dip them until yesterday). That evening we went to the temple to see the lights. We were originally going to go on Thursday evening but there was lots of rain in the forecast for that evening so we decided to go Wednesday instead. I'm glad we did because it was definitely raining cats and dogs on Thursday evening! We invited Jared & Jessie to come too. Frank had gone to work that day so Seth, Jared, Jessie and I drove down together and met Frank at the temple. We saw the lights, a display of international nativity sets, and checked out the Light the World giving machine. The lights were so beautiful!! I kept taking pictures but I've decided the camera on my phone just isn't that good. Here are a bunch of them anyway though:

I took a lot of pictures of the nativity sets too. Here are a few of my favorites:

It was not very cold that evening, which was really nice. After we finished at the temple, we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Frank and I both started getting back our senses of taste and smell early in the week and by Wednesday we could really taste again, and that Mexican food tasted like the best food I have ever eaten!! 😂

I had an appointment at the temple on Thursday but I wasn't sure if it was really going to happen. There was snow / freezing rain predicted for Thursday morning so I wasn't sure if school would be delayed or cancelled or if the temple would open late also. The forecast was for snow and freezing rain in the early morning hours and then turning to regular rain by midmorning. When we woke up around 5:00 am we found out they had decided to have a 2 hour delay, but were going to reevaluate at 7:00. At 5:00 nothing was happening yet but it was still supposed to be coming. I kept a close eye on the forecast and they kept moving back the time that the storm was going to arrive. By 7:00 we still hadn't received any precipitation of any kind but around 7:20 they decided to cancel school because at that point the forecast was still saying we were going to get snow and freezing rain within an hour. I debated back and forth about trying to drive to the temple...I didn't want to drive on icy roads...but I finally decided to just go for it. It seems like predicted storms often don't materialize. When I left my house, there was a little bit of freezing rain coming down but only a little bit and the roads were pefectly fine. The freezing rain quickly changed to regular rain. So I was right...the winter weather never materalized, and there was no reason to cancel (or even delay) school. It's pretty frustrating when that happens, but I can't really blame the school district, since the forecast continually said we were going to get some nasty weather. I am really glad that I decided to go to the temple! The funny thing was, I had forgotten that my appointment wasn't until 11:00 (I usually make appointments for 10:00) so I got there REALLY early. (The traffic was MUCH better than usual also so I got there much quicker than usual...no doubt because school was cancelled and a lot of people were probably deterred from going out because of the forecast.) It all turned out fine...they were able to work me in at 10:00 instead of at 11:00. When I was done and went back downstairs, I noticed the organ in the chapel was playing Christmas music so I sat down in front of the mural (which is just outside the chapel) and listened to Christmas music for quite a while. It was just really lovely to be in the temple listening to Christmas music!!

After I got home from the temple, I got the rest of the regular chores done. Jared came over in the late afternoon (Jessie had a friend visiting her) and he and Seth played games together. Jared stayed for dinner and then Frank played games with them also. It was pouring rain all afternoon, evening, and all night and this morning the river was up quite a bit.

It's even higher now. It was nice to see the sun again today, although as I said...it's really cold now.

I've spent today inside doing things like updating the budget and making cookie dough (I'll be making cookies after dinner). Frank has been running errands like getting a few things from the store. Seth went over to the carpool boys' house to play for a few hours this afternoon; Frank took him there and back also. Normally, he would walk but with wind chills below zero, we decided that wasn't a great idea. I'm really glad Frank did all those things so that I didn't have to go out in the cold! Right now Frank is making us some grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. We were supposed to have Mongolian beef for dinner but I discovered a couple of hours ago that when I put the meat in the crock pot this morning, I forgot to turn it on! I was so mad at myself when I realized that!! Since the meat had been sitting in there for 6 or 7 hours, we're not sure it's any good, so we had to throw it out.

The only other thing that happened this week was that I spent some time trying to get in touch with Seth's counselor at school since he is practically failing his math class. I had to email her three times before she finally called me. Then I was able to have a good discussion with her. She pulled Seth in to talk to her too and I have also been communicating with his teacher. Unfortunately, since it took so long to connect with his counselor, we really aren't going to be able to do anything to help him improve his grade until after winter break, and there will only be a couple of weeks left in the term by then. But I tried! We may have him take Algebra 2 again this summer...even if he manages to get a passing grade, we feel like he's missed so many of the concepts that taking it again (from a different teacher!) would be beneficial. We'll make that decision in a few months.

Thursday was supposed to be the last day of school for Seth (but it turned out to be Wednesday) and Thursday was also Frank's last day of work until January. It will be nice to have some family time! 

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas; we love you!!!

Weekly Review December 16 '22

 When I left off last week, Frank and I were both sick but I was hoping we'd get better quickly. Well, we didn't--we're still recovering although doing a lot better--and as many of you know, it turns out we both have Covid. That means we've been home all week and there's not a ton to report, but there have been a few things happening.

Last Friday I got a lot worse as the day went on and ended up with a fever, body aches, congestion, and cough to go along with my headache and sore throat. I felt pretty rotten Saturday and Sunday too. Frank improved a bit, but not a lot. He also started noticing a loss of taste and smell. By then we had decided that we'd better test for Covid, so after Frank dropped Seth off at Seminary Monday morning (both he and Seth wore masks), he stopped at the store to pick up Covid home test kits. He came home and performed his test immediately...I had gone back to sleep after a rough night, so I slept through the Seminary / school drop off run. After Frank got back from taking Seth to school, I woke up and found out that Frank had tested positive for Covid. Frank went back to bed and I got up and did my test, which was also positive, not surprisingly. This meant contacting a few people and making a few adjustments, which I did that morning. Frank contacted his work and they told him he can't return to the office until at least Monday (and he has to have a negative Covid test before then too.) Then we settled in for a week of mostly isolation. 

By Monday morning both Frank and I were starting to feel a little better. Our fevers had finally broken and most of our other symptoms had abated somewhat but we both felt really tired. I'm not sure I can even put into words the level of exhaustion...it's like nothing I have ever felt before! We were doing laundry on Monday and just climbing half of our flight of stairs would completely wipe us out! Any amount of exertion, no matter how small, would leave my arms with no strength. Thankfully, that level of exhaustion only lasted that day for me. I'm still tired, but the rest of the week I've been able to move about without so much effort. Frank seemed to take a few days longer before that exhaustion abated for him, but both of us are mostly feeling normal again besides being tired. I still have a slight sore throat and headache every morning when I wake up that seems to diminish as the day goes on. I had a cough over the weekend and early in the week that was really causing my chest to hurt but that has gone away too thankfully. (I still cough occasionally, but it's not often.) I started noticing a loss of taste and smell on Monday and both Frank and I still can't really smell or taste much. It's a really strange sensation to eat without tasting...I feel like I can tell if something is sweet or salty, but not really detect a taste. Hopefully those senses will return again soon. If not, then looking on the bright side...we won't overeat this holiday season! It's really not that motivating to eat yummy stuff when you can't taste it. 

So...what have we been doing all week while recovering? Maybe it's more about what we didn't do. We weren't feeling well enough to go to church or even to drop Seth off at church, which all things considered is a good thing. We were able to watch Sacrament meeting from home and got permission to take the sacrament at home too. I missed choir practice, of course, but Frank and I attended our meeting via Zoom. It was a meeting for the Bishopric and YW presidency to meet together to plan for next year. It turned out to be a long meeting, and even though we were lying in bed for the whole meeting, we were fading fast before it ended. I missed the choir concert that evening too which I was really disappointed about...it only happens once a year and it's always so beautiful! Better luck next year, I guess. Other things we didn't do: I didn't take Seth to the orthodontist (had to reschedule for January), my ministering sister didn't come to visit me on Tuesday (we had to postpone) and none of us went to youth activities on Wednesday evening (it was a combined activity with all our youth and the youth from another ward and they went caroling at a nursing home). I also had to cancel my Thursday temple appointment but it turns out the temple opened late (because of the icy roads) so I wouldn't have been able to go anyway, even if I had been well. 

Frank took Monday off work (as well as Thursday and Friday) but he's been allowed to work from home for the rest of the week. 

Seth has been feeling fine and he went to school every day. He's been wearing a mask. He went to Seminary on Monday and Wednesday (wearing a mask then too) but he didn't get up early enough on Tuesday. Thursday was supposed to be the last day of Seminary until January because they have covered all the material they need to cover for the Old Testament. It turned out they didn't have Seminary on Thursday, though, because there was a 2 hour delay for school. That's because that storm that has been dumping snow all across the country got to us that morning, but in the form of freezing rain instead of snow. I don't think we got a lot of freezing rain, actually, but it was enough for them to delay school. The freezing rain quickly changed to regular rain so by the time I took Seth to school on Thursday the roads weren't icy at all. It rained most of the day and into the evening last night but the sun is back out today. 

We've been trying to isolate ourselves from Seth as much as possible. He's been a trooper this week, doing lots of extra chores for us and other things to help out. He usually feeds himself so that didn't change. I usually purchase groceries on Mondays and Thursdays but to avoid contact with other people, I didn't do that. Instead, we put in an order for a few necessary items which I picked up curbside on Tuesday evening. We decided to throw out the meal plan for the week because a) I didn't feel up to cooking much and b) we couldn't taste anything so why go to all the effort? Instead, we stocked up on things like soup, eggs, and frozen items (like pot pies and chimichangas) which can be prepared without a lot of effort. It's worked out okay and I've enjoyed the break from cooking although there hasn't been much joy in eating, either.

Most of the household chores haven't been done this week either with the exception of laundry...I haven't had the energy and I figure the bathrooms and floors can just as easily be cleaned next week as this week! I have tried to get a few things done for Christmas, though. Since all the stuff I ordered late last week arrived early this week, I decided to wrap it all since that's a task I can do sitting down. I did that on Wednesday, and now there's a huge pile of presents under the tree. I also tried to get the Christmas cards ready to mail but when Frank tried to help me print addresses on envelopes last night he accidentally erased my file with all the addresses! Thankfully, I had an old copy of the file somewhere else that we were able to use to retrieve most of the addresses but I had to track down all the new ones I had added this year again. We'll try again tonight. In the meantime, we received three cards this morning and two of them came from friends who both announced they moved this year, so I had the wrong address for them anyway. Maybe it was meant to be!

I've been conducting YW business from home via texts and phone calls...preparing for next week's activity (my class is in charge) and I've also been preparing for tomorrow's sewing class. I should be able to go to that (as long as I'm feeling up to it) since my last day of isolation was Wednesday. I will need to wear a mask through Monday, though. 

Although I missed choir practice, I'm still hoping to sing with the choir on Christmas. Our choir director provides practice tracks of each part that we can listen to / practice with at home, so I've been listening to the alto part so that I'm familiar with it. I don't have access to the sheet music and I can't actually sing well yet but I figure if I listen to the part a lot it will hopefully come easier when I go to practice this week. I've also been listening to a lot of other Christmas music this week, which has been nice. The music is one of the things I love the most about Christmas!

I had plenty of reading time this week so I finished The German Girl for book chat. Actually, I finished it on Saturday evening...that's mostly all I did those first few days when I was feeling the worst. The book was pretty good but sad. I was kind of disappointed that it didn't turn out better. I mean, I don't expect things to be perfect or even easy, but I wanted to see more growth in the main characters. They had an awful lot to deal with--I can't blame them for getting down--but I would have liked to see them triumph over their troubles more than they did. 

I've been enjoying reading my scriptures this week while sitting by the lit up Christmas tree. I'll finish with a photo from this morning. 

Weekly Review December 9 '22

 I'm feeling motivated to get this post written quickly so that I can take a nap! Frank is really sick (he started feeling unwell on Wednesday) and I woke up today not feeling my best. I hope I'm going to have a milder version of whatever Frank has. He has a fever, sore throat, head ache, body aches, congestion, sinus pain, and bad cough. He's really miserable! I have a slight head ache and sore throat and some body aches. It didn't even occur to me until last night that we should probably be testing ourselves for Covid-19, but we don't have any test kits left and I'm not feeling like going to the store today. Both of us had flu shots this fall but I suppose we could have picked up another strain of the flu. Seems like a lot of people have been sick. Hopefully we will both be feeling better soon.

We've had a pretty busy week. Seems that the Christmas season is in full swing, with all the things that go with that. When I wrote last week, Scott was putting up the Christmas tree. He and I and Seth stayed up pretty late hanging the ornaments on the tree. (Frank went to bed because he was really tired.) I took this photo of Seth and Scott putting the first two ornaments on the advent calendar on Friday evening:

Even though I was up late Friday night, I woke up around 4:00 am Saturday morning and never went back to sleep so I put in a full day on Saturday with very little sleep. Well, wasn't the first time I've done that and probably won't be the last. I've been sleeping solidly every night since Sunday...not waking up at all, or only very briefly...so that's been pretty great. 

I woke up at 4:00 am because Frank was getting up to take Scott to the airport. We miss having him here, but we're so glad he was able to visit us! Saturday was really busy because I had an appointment in the morning to get my hair done. Then I went to the church to help set up for the ward Christmas party, followed by the second sewing class for the YW. After that, we had the Christmas party. I went home briefly in between the hair cut and setting up and again between the sewing class and the party, but I wasn't home for long. 

The sewing class went really well (except I was too busy to take any pictures). I had plenty of adult helpers and we were able to help all the girls cut out the pieces for their skirts. Two of the girls didn't come, so next time one of the adults will have to help them do that while the rest of the girls start sewing. We don't have a class tomorrow because one of the other wards has their Christmas party and they have the entire building reserved all day so we don't have a place to meet. It is just as well, since I'm not feeling well. I would have had to cancel it or pass it off to one of the other adults who knows how to sew. 

The Christmas party was a "Evening in Bethlehem" theme. It was really well done. The cultural hall was decorated to look like a market in Bethlehem with booths for food. They asked us to dress in Biblical costumes if we could, but they also had a booth where you could "buy" scarves and things like that if you didn't have a costume. At the same booth, we could "buy" a lamp too...one of the women in our ward is a potter and she made a bunch of little "lamps" made out of clay. (We were all given "shekels"--plastic gold coins--when we arrived to purchase these things as well as our food.) There was a booth for "Bethlehem food" and another booth for "Roman food". The Bethlehem food was mediterranean food like hummus, spicy lamb, pomegranates, grapes, olives, etc. The Roman food was traditional American Christmas food like roast beef, potatoes, and green beans. Frank helped cook the "Roman" food, so he was at the church most of the day helping with the prepartions. I took this photo of him while I was there to help set up...he's putting meat on a spit to go into a roaster oven:

Besides all of those booths, they also had a booth with a craft for the kids to do and they had some games out in the foyer too. There were baskets, blankets, cushions, and plants all over to add to the atmosphere and there was also a star hanging over a manger scene. I left my phone in the car or I would have taken some photos because it looked fantastic!! We ate dinner, periodically stopping to hear parts of the Christmas story and to sing Christmas carols. It was a really nice evening. Both the "Bethlehem" food and the "Roman" food were really good! We stayed after to help with a lot of the clean up but didn't stay for all of it because Frank's back was killing him by then. (It was better after a good night's rest). Oh, and at the end of the party the bishop showed a little film that the bishopric made which I will share here because Frank, Seth and I are all in it. 

Bishopric Christmas Movie

Sunday was also pretty busy because besides our regular church meetings, Frank had bishopric meeting and ward council (of course) and I had a stake YW leadership training meeting. My meeting was really good and they had yummy food (which was great since it was fast Sunday and the meeting was at dinner time). They said there would be "snacks" but here is a picture of my plate:

I would call that a meal, not snacks! (The croissant has chicken salad in it, so it's a sandwich). At the end of the meeting they told us that whoever had a smiley face under their napkin at each table would get to take home the centerpiece. I had moved my napkin to use it, but didn't see the smiley face because I put my plate down on top of it. I was very surprised when I moved my plate a little and found the smiley face! The centerpiece looks like this:

The papers come out, so I can put photos or something else in it. They also gave each of us a little favor:

I let Seth eat / drink mine. 

As I was getting home from my meeting, Seth and Frank were leaving to go on a ministering visit. After they got home, we all watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional together. Tim sighting!:

The rest of the week has also been busy with all the usual household tasks, plus Christmas preparations and other events nearly every day. On Monday I had a dentist appointment...my biannual check up. My teeth look good except I have a tiny cavity on my tooth with the crown...right below the edge of the crown. I have to go back next month to get that filled, and I will have to brush more carefully around that tooth. That morning I also gave a ride to a young adult girl in our ward...she needed a ride to work because her family's car had a dead battery that wouldn't work even after a jump (they got a new battery the next day and it works fine now). They live near us which is why her mom asked me if I could give her a ride. It set me back a bit, but I managed to get everything done and I was glad to help. That evening I made some sugar cookies because we needed them for the YW activity the next day.

Frank worked from home on Tuesday because he had a meeting on Wednesday that he needed to be in the office for. Actually, he has this meeting every Wednesday through the end of the year so he will be working from home on Tuesdays instead of Wednesdays at least until then. I had a few errands to run that day...I went to the dollar store in search of a gift for this week's RS activity (we needed to bring a white elephant or gift $3 or less), to the post office to mail a return and to the library to pick up the next book for book club. At the dollar store, I ended up getting a mug, some hot chocolate packets, some marshmallow snowmen, a "mug treat" (to make a little cake in a mug), and a pair of socks. I added some small candy canes that I already had at home, and packed it all into the mug. The items I returned were some necklaces I ordered from Deseret Book for the YW in our ward. We ordered 11, but they only sent 5. When I called them to find out why, I discovered that the other 6 were on back order, with no prediction of when they would arrive. So I talked to the other YW leaders and we decided to send those necklaces back, cancel the rest of the order, and find something else to give the girls instead. I just wish that Deseret Book had contacted me to let me know they didn't have enough in stock to fill my order before they sent the 5 necklaces that they had, because I would have told them not to send them. That would have saved me the time and trouble. (And money, since I had to pay out of pocket for the postage to return them.) The book we are reading for book club now is called The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa. It's set in two time periods...WWII and 2014. I haven't had much time to read it so I haven't made it very far but it's pretty interesting. 

We had a combined youth activity on Tuesday evening. The Primary activity days kids were invited too. First we all decorated cookies. Then we practiced singing "Far, Far Away On Judea's Plains" because the youth and activity day kids were singing the next day at the town of Walkersville's Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. One of the YM accompanied us on the mandolin. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures. (Which was kind of my theme for the week...I went to a lot of events and didn't take pictures at any of them!) Oh, except for this one photo of the cookies I decorated (which I gave away instead of eating):

 

On Wednesday I had a YW presidency meeting in the morning. I tried to get some Christmas shopping done but only managed to go over the lists I had collected from everyone and took note of what I thought I would get. I also did a little bit of online searching and came up with a few ideas of my own. I wanted Frank to help me make final decisions, so I didn't buy anything. When Frank called me as he was leaving work, he said he was starting to not feel well. He already sounded pretty bad by the time he got home, so he did not go to the town of Walkersville Christmas Tree Lighting with Seth and I. The weather has been fairly mild for the last few weeks so being outside was not unpleasant. This is probably the 4th or 5th year I've gone to this event because our ward has been invited to sing each year since about 2018 and I've always been involved in some way...either as ward music chair, as a choir member, or as a parent or leader of others who are singing. I think it's really nice that they do this every year and invite different churches to sing and it's okay to sing faith based Christmas music! There are always a couple of different groups who sing / play music and they also have a guy who explains the story behind Hanukkah. Most of the people in our ward who were singing showed up late (and many didn't come at all) so I was starting to worry that we weren't going to have enough of us to sing. But at the last minute, several families came and all the adults chose to help sing so we had a pretty decent sized group and it sounded good to me. As a matter of fact, I think we sang louder than any of the other singing groups...some of them could barely be heard. I feel like this happens every year...our very unprofessional group ends up pulling off one of the best (or at least audible) performances! The high school band always plays a few songs and they are pretty good too, and this year they had a bell choir which was great. After the music, we counted down for the Christmas tree lights to come on and then Santa Claus arrived on a fire truck, escorted by several other fire trucks and emergency vehicles. There was hot chocolate and cookies too. 

Frank had to call in sick yesterday and today. Seth didn't have Seminary Thursday morning because they were taking this semester's assessment but he had already taken it online and passed it so he didn't have to go. I spent yesterday taking care of Frank, doing all the regular household chores, and some things for YW. I went to the store to purchase gift bags and some candy for the YW Christmas gifts...we ordered birthstone necklaces for each of the YW from Amazon and added some candy too. I ordered the necklaces, which means they came to my house so it just made sense for me to put together the gifts. I spent about an hour dividing up the candy into the gift bags and making sure the correct birthstone necklace went into each gift bag. Four of the necklaces haven't arrived yet (but they will be here tonight) so I still have to add them to the bags after they get here.

I have also been busy working out some details for the combined YW activity that will be held on the 20th because my class is in charge of that. On Thursday I also (after checking with Frank) ordered Christmas gifts for everyone. Christmas shopping has become a lot easier and less time consuming with online shopping! Now I just have to keep track of all the boxes as they arrive. 

In the evening I went to an RS activity which was a Christmas celebration including the white elephant gift exchange. I actually thought about not going since Frank wasn't feeling well but since I had already put together a gift, I decided to go for at least a little while. Now I kind of wish I'd stayed home since I may have exposed other people to whatever we have. If I had known I was going to wake up feeling sick this morning, I definitely wouldn't have gone. But I did have fun, and I didn't have close contact with anyone so hopefully I didn't get anyone sick. We did the traditional gift exchange where you can choose to open a gift when it's your turn or take one from someone else. I got lucky and drew number 20 out of 22 people so I got to choose what I wanted from most of the gifts! We actually went around a second time after the first round but there was a rule that each gift could only be "stolen" 3 times and I was the 3rd person to "steal" my gift, so I was safe and got to keep it. It's a nice Christmas blanket:

I probably don't need any more blankets, but I liked it (it's really soft!) and most of the other gifts were things like candles which I don't really use. We each received a cute pair of socks at the end too and I can always use more warm socks! I'm wearing mine today:

Today I spent the morning updating the finances (while trying to take care of Frank and rest myself as much as possible). I'm bummed that we're both sick because we were supposed to go to the temple together tomorrow and now we can't go. Plus we really need to be well by Sunday because I have choir practice and we both have a meeting we need to attend and there's a Christmas concert that evening that I really want to go to! Hopefully Frank will be feeling better by Sunday and hopefully I won't get worse.

Jared and Jessie have decided to move back to Maryland. Jared texted us on Sunday to let us know they had decided. They will be living with Jessie's parents. They are still figuring out details but plan to be fully moved up here by the end of the year. We may be going down to NC between Christmas and New Year's to help pick up some of their things. Originally, we talked about me going down there this weekend to pick up a load, but we decided against that and it's a good thing since Frank and I are both sick. Obviously, this situation won't be ideal for them (or her parents) and we wish they didn't have to do this but there's always a silver lining in the cloud and in this case, it means we will get to see them more and offer more support for them than we could do if they were in NC. Since Jessie's parents are on a well where they live, Jared & Jessie will probably come to our house at least once a week to do laundry and we will probably feed them dinner at least once a week too. Jared is still recovering from surgery and not feeling really great. Please continue to pray for them both.

I will finish up with a few more photos. This first photo is of the Christmas village pieces we got from Mom:

(I added the trees and a "snow drape". I want to see if I can find something fluffier for the snow, though.)

The rest of the photos are nature photos I took this week. Lots of pretty sunrises and fog and things like that:

Saturday afternoon, right after the sewing class

Yesterday morning, when I left to pick up Seth from Seminary

And yesterday morning after I dropped Seth off at school. The fog had mostly cleared up, but the sky had turned brilliant colors!

And this was this morning's sunrise

Weekly Reviews November 25 & December 2 '22

 We were out of town last week so now I have two weeks to cover (and very little time) so I'll try to write the abbreviated version. We've had quite a bit going on though so I'm not sure how successful I will be.

Saturday the 19th was a busy day. I don't remember everything we did, just that I was busy all day. There was a baptism that afternoon for an 8 year old girl in our ward. Frank was helping with that. She has family living in several countries, so they did a Zoom call for the distant extended family to join in and Frank was in charge of making sure that worked. I went to the baptism too and it was a really sweet and well attended baptism. They had invited a ton of friends and there were probably close to 100 people there. Dad saw a family member of one of his clients...her son and the girl who got baptized are friends at school and also play soccer together. 

After the baptism, we had the first sewing class. The fabric store is a few minutes from our stake center and many of the girls were attending the baptism so we had everyone who was going meet us there and we went over to the fabric store after the baptism ended. I showed the girls how to choose a pattern from a book, how to locate that pattern in the drawers, and showed them all the information on the back of the envelope (how much fabric to buy, suggested fabrics, notions needed, etc.) Then they each picked out the fabric for their skirt. Everything went well and I think the girls are looking forward to making their skirts. Our next class is tomorrow...they'll be cutting out their pieces. They each took their fabric home with instructions to wash it and bring it to the next class. 

While I was at the class, Seth and Frank raked leaves in our front yard. Frank's back was hurting him quite a bit that evening but thankfully after a good night's sleep he was a lot better.

I don't remember anything about Sunday the 20th except that we went to church of course! I've been reading a book about the Washington DC Temple which is very fascinating and I remember reading a few chapters of that book. 

I was asked to help with Seminary on Monday and Tuesday mornings. One of the teachers was out of town but they have to have 2 adults there so that teacher asked me to be the second adult. I didn't have to do anything except be there. It's a good thing I was there the second day because the teacher missed her alarm and overslept. It was interesting to go to Seminary...those kids were all so quiet! I think most of them were half asleep. I think that would be a difficult group to teach. 

While I was at Seminary with Seth on Tuesday morning, Frank was picking Scott up from the airport. He had an overnight flight from Utah to here and landed around 6:30 am. It's been great to have Scott here with us the last 2 weeks. (He flies back to Utah tomorrow morning.) 

Monday and Tuesday were busy with the usual chores as well as preparing for our trip to North Carolina for Thanksgiving. When Scott got here, he slept for a while (he didn't sleep at all on the plane) while I finished packing and Frank worked. He got permission to work from home on Tuesday so that we could leave for NC when Seth got home from school. 

We were able to leave about 30 minutes after Seth got home. We only had to drive about 4 hours because we got a hotel in southern Virginia, at about the half way point. None of us slept very well that night, however. We forgot to check the thermostat in the room before going to bed and it got really hot. Even I got uncomfortably hot, which is saying something!! Scott was on Utah time so he had trouble sleeping and Seth often doesn't sleep well. The beds weren't very comfortable either. We were all awake by about 4:00 am so we decided to get up and shower and get ready to go. Then we ate breakfast as soon as the free breakfast opened up and afterwards got on the road. It was only about 7:30 so we got to NC sooner than we anticipated. We had booked an air bnb that was in a renovated barn. I forgot to take a picture of the outside, but it had a silo and everything! We liked this place a lot. It was clean, bright, and spacious with a full kitchen, 4 bedrooms including 2 master suites, and 3 bathrooms. The living room had a large picture window and there was a deck off the living room too. The views from both the living room and the deck were really beautiful!!

Here are some photos. First, the living room:

Kitchen:

Dining area (with Seth):

One of the masters (Jared & Jessie stayed in this room):

The other master (where Frank & I stayed):

Scott's room (obviously!):

Seth's room (which also had an attached bathroom):

Entrance area and stairs:

After we got settled in, we left Scott there taking a nap and went to get some lunch. Then we visited Frank's parents briefly and then went to the grocery store to get some things for Thanksgiving and for breakfasts. Meanwhile, Jared and Jessie were driving over from their home in Cary, NC and they arrived at the air bnb while we were gone (they knew how to get in) so we got to see them when we got back. We all went to Dawn's house (Frank's sister) to help make turkey rolls and ham rolls for the next day. We had an assembly line going and made 72 of them in a few minutes. 

After that we all went to dinner together at a Chinese buffet place; Frank's parents came too.

That evening Jessie and Jared taught us how to play a game using Rook cards that was really fun. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. We woke up early so we watched the sunrise:

We all met at the church for our Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone brought things...we made sweet potato casserole, banana pudding, and a chocolate pudding pie. We also brought a veggie tray, olives, pickles, and two pies we purchased: one pecan and one blueberry. We had a ton of yummy food, as usual, and enjoyed eating, visiting, and playing games all day. 

That evening, after we got back to the air bnb, we got to talk to Tanner and Darlee for a little while. We also watched Top Gun Maverick, which I had not seen before. It was pretty good; definitely better than the original Top Gun movie. 

On Friday we all met at the church again to visit, play games, and eat leftovers. Jared & Jessie were leaving to go back home that day. We took a few pictures:

We got a picture of our family too but I just realized I don't have it on my computer so I'll add it next week. Here are Jared and Scott saying goodbye:

Later, we said our goodbyes to everybody and headed back to our place to finish up laundry. We went to dinner at a little soup & sandwich place in Brevard. Then we went back to our place and watched Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse. (Another movie that I hadn't seen.) 

Saturday morning it was time to head home. It was a foggy morning and the views were fantastic:

We took our leftover food to Frank's parents and said goodbye. We did the trip home in one day this time. It went pretty well overall...a few slow spots, but mostly we sailed along and made it home by dinner time. We unpacked, ate Chinese take out, and went to bed.

Frank was the only member of the bishopric at church on Sunday. Our bishop was out of town and the 1st Counselor was supposed to be there, but he was sick. Scott had been asked to give a talk / testimony. He was the first speaker and did a great job!! Because some people were out of town and others were sick, we only had 4 YW there so we decided to combine all the classes. Since we had 6 adults and one of the YW was teaching the lesson, we decided that might be a bit overwhelming so the secretary and I went to RS. It was kind of fun to do that for a change although I missed being with the YW too.

That afternoon Seth enjoyed having Scott there to build Legos with him: 

The rest of this week I've been trying to get back into my regular routine and get things done while visiting with Scott. Some of the things I've done besides the usual things: on Monday I raked leaves in the front and back yards. Our lawn was going to be treated for winter on Wednesday, so we didn't want a lot of leaves on it. Frank and Seth got a lot of leaves picked up the previous Saturday but obviously a lot had fallen in the week since then. We were going to go to a Academic Award Ceremony at the high school that evening but my stomach was upset so we didn't go. (It's fine now though.) Seth was being awarded an academic pin because he had a GPA over 3.5 last year. Frank had a check up with the doctor that evening too. When he got home we had family night. On Wednesday I took Seth to the orthodontist. He got out of school 2 hours early but he had an earlier appointment because he was getting some brackets put on so I still had to pick him up early from school. Actually, I had to go to the CTC because he was still there. At the orthodontist they put brackets on all four of his back molars which have finally come in most of the way. On Thursday I went to the temple and I had book chat that evening. Scott wanted to go to the temple too but he had to work.

 

I did not have a youth activity on Tuesday evening because my class is going to help set up for the ward Christmas party tomorrow instead. (The advisor for my class is in charge of the Christmas party, so we're helping her.) Frank and Seth did have an activity...they went to our Bishop's house to celebrate his birthday (it was actually that day) and also worked on a short film that the bishopric is making for the ward Christmas party. (I have a short part in it too...we filmed that last night). 

In between everything else we've been trying to get some things done for Christmas including some shopping and decorating. Scott is putting up the tree while I type this. I put up most of the other decorations on Wednesday. 

I finished watching Black Widow while exercising last week and now I'm watching Christmas movies. I watched The Santa Clause this week while jogging. I will watch the rest of that series and then probably watch Home Alone and Miracle on 34th Street.  I haven't had much time for reading, but I did finish The Silver on the Tree (last book in the Dark Is Rising series) and it was pretty good. I don't feel like the author explained a lot of the details very well, but overall I enjoyed the series. 

Tonight we took Scott out to eat at a Mexican restaurant. Seth is getting better at trying new things. He normally wouldn't touch Mexican food but he got some tacos and loved them. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day too.

Jared had surgery yesterday and so far seems to be recovering pretty well. He didn't have any complications this time so he was able to come home yesterday. He's not feeling great, of course, but hopefully he will be feeling a lot better in a few days. He had the ultrasound of his liver done today but he doesn't know the results of that yet. Please continue to pray for him!

I'll finish up with a few sunrise photos I took yesterday.