Weekly Review April 4 '14

Have I ever posted a picture of my newest set of salt & pepper shakers?  I'm don't think I have.  Ben & Dee sent us these clever ones for Christmas:  

 We've been using them since January...I thought having them out in January & February would be an appropriate memorial for the all the astronauts who have died on the space shuttle, since one group died in January and the other in February.  (Sorry the picture is blurry.)  I put them away this week, though, and these ones came out:

Plus another spring set that I've posted a picture of before, so I won't do it again.  I also put the spring "Welcome" sign on the front door.  Today is actually cloudy, breezy, and rather chilly.  But we have had warmer temperatures in general all week and a few nice days.  It was finally warm enough that the daffodils decided to bloom:

Oh, and a couple of birds picked this spot to build their nest a few days ago:

It's right above our front step and they made a bit of a mess on the steps when they were building it (not to mention I've spotted a few bird droppings) but I don't mind too much.  It's a lot easier to not be grumpy when it's spring!  There are squirrels all over the place again, too.  In our neighborhood we have ordinary looking brown squirrels but there are also a lot of black squirrels.  They're pretty.

Well, I said it was going to be awesome to have Sister missionaries in our ward, and I was right!  I love the Elders too but I can work a lot closer with sisters and I can ask them to visit a lot of people that it would be difficult for the Elders to visit (such as single sisters).  This set that we have are working so hard and I am so impressed with them!  One of them is brand new out of the MTC, but you would never know it.  I've spent quite a bit of time with them this week, and they talk to everyone they meet.  They came for dinner on Friday evening and I gave them some suggestions of a few people to visit.  On Saturday I invited them to come with me to visit a couple of sisters who are in nursing homes.  Then I went with them to see a less active sister (one I hadn't met yet) and took them to the Women's Broadcast afterwards.  On Sunday they were in PEC with me so I wasn't the only girl.  On Wednesday they came over so I could give them a list of people to visit.  I went through the ward list and wrote down every sister I thought it would be good for them to visit...less active sisters, sisters with non member husbands, sisters who are struggling, sisters who are lonely.  There were about 59 of them!  Even I was shocked by how long the list turned out to be.  I gave them a little background information on several of them; we are still working our way through the list.  Last night I went on "splits" with them...not true splits since the three of us just went together (since one of them is brand new) and got to visit another less active sister...one I've been trying to visit for months.  Besides all that, they send me a text message every evening letting me know who they have been able to visit and how it went.  They have seen so many people already!  Besides working with less actives and part members, they are also meeting a potential investigator soon and have been having a lot of success helping another investigator progress...she's been investigating for a little over a year now.  I am pretty much in heaven.  It's like having a 3rd & 4th counselor! :)

So besides all that, what else happened this week?  It is "tech week" for the play Catch Me If You Can, so Jared & Tanner have barely been home all week.  The first performance was last night.  There is another tonight and three more tomorrow.  Then they have performances next Thursday, Friday & Saturday as well.  I will be glad when this play is over and we can see them again.  Plus there are a lot of things that Tanner and I need to get going on...like finishing up all the shopping for the Hill Cumorah Pageant, finishing up the paperwork for his Eagle project, filling out his service log sheet for NHS, and applying for scholarships.  It is making me anxious, all the things that need to get done in the next couple of months and he's not here to do them right now.  We did get him signed up for housing at BYU this week...he was given a specific day and time where he could go online to sign up.  Unless something changes, he'll be living at Helaman Halls building 9 (don't know why it doesn't have a name...all the other buildings have them...like "Budge Hall" or "May Hall").  We signed him up for a meal plan too so he won't starve at least.

Frank has had lots of little emergencies and extra little jobs come up with clients so he has been very busy this week too.  Seth and I have been eating a lot of meals with just the two of us, it seems.

Last Friday it was quite nice so after the sisters left after dinner I took Seth over to the park to play until it got dark.  Then on Monday (which was also one of the nicer days) Frank and I walked down to the bigger park with him.  Seth rode his bike...that is the first time we've been able to convince him to actually get on the bike and pedal!  He did pretty well but needs lots of practice still.  Seth enjoyed playing on the playground at the park and then we came home and had a treat.  We did the rest of family night (lesson etc) on Sunday so that Tanner and Jared could be there.

On Saturday I got my hair done, we had the Elders over for dinner (see, we're not totally neglecting them), Jared went to a party, I finished up lesson preparations, Tanner slept half the day (recuperating from the first play before the second began) and I did the visits and went to the Women's Broadcast as mentioned earlier.  Like Mom, I was very touched by the meeting.  There was such a sweet spirit there.  The talks were excellent, but the thing that touched me the most was seeing all those women around me with their arms around their daughters...and on the broadcast, seeing the women in the choir holding the hands of the girls next to them.  I felt like as women, we were showing all the girls what it means to be a daughter of God and a women in the church...letting them see and feel how wonderful that is!

Besides all the extra activity with the missionaries, this week was fairly calm for me.  I went to the library on Monday, had a routine doctor visit on Tuesday, went to the temple on Wednesday, and had a presidency meeting yesterday.  It was great to go to the temple again.  I saw the newest movie, which I hadn't seen before, so I enjoyed that.  It was nice that this week wasn't packed full of things to do since the boys were gone so I didn't have any help with chores.  As it was, I kept busy every day but I wasn't going crazy.  I am also very proud of myself because I managed to exercise Monday, Wednesday, and today.  I am really trying to do that more consistently, and to do exercises that are more demanding.

That's everything worth noting for this week, I think.  The school district finally let us know that the state has granted them a waiver for 2 snow days, so that means that between that and all the days we are making up, the last day of school will be on June 11th, as originally scheduled.  We are looking at plane tickets and hope to have some purchased by next week.