Weekly Review February 6 '15

After a great deal of distress, I have managed to add pictures to my post this week.  So I hope you enjoy them!!  And hopefully someday I will manage to figure out how to use my new laptop.  It is a long learning curve, I'm afraid!

I did forget to mention one event last week...not sure why I forgot...but last Thursday Scott's former (I think former) girlfriend, Allie, came to visit us.  She got home from her mission in December.  Tanner has seen her several times at YSA activities but the rest of us hadn't seen her or had a chance to talk to her since she got home.  I did write to her shortly before she came home and told her we'd like to see her when she got home and that she was always welcome in our home, so I guess she decided to take me up on it.  We did enjoy seeing her and had a really nice visit even though it was slightly awkward because we really don't have a good idea of what happened or is happening between her and Scott, not to mention how she might feel about it.  All we know for sure is that they stopped writing to each other and that Scott is not hoping that relationship will go anywhere when he gets home.  I have mostly been worried about how she feels...if he hurt her feelings a lot or something.  But the fact that she actually did ask to come see us I think is a hopeful sign that she isn't feeling too bad.  She didn't seem uncomfortable or upset at all when she was here.  We didn't talk about Scott much but we also didn't totally avoid mentioning him, and I noticed when we did say something about him that she didn't chime in or take the opportunity to talk about him at all, but she also didn't look upset either.  So hopefully that means that the parting was mutual and no hard feelings!  At any rate, she seems very comfortable and friendly with us and we were really glad to see her.  We ended up talking so long that we invited her to eat dinner with us as well and then she gave Tanner a ride over to Institute (and back home again afterwards too).  

This week was also busy but not very eventful.  We are jealous of you Utah folks, who seem to be having some pretty nice weather.  It's been very frigid here, especially the last few days.  It was 15 degrees this morning, and windy on top of that!  And of course, the groudhog saw his shadow.  But tomorrow we're supposed to have a high of 50, which is going to feel downright tropical after today.  So we'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I had meetings this week--with the bishop and a presidency meeting--but other than that RS has been not incredibly taxing lately.  It has me worried...what is coming up around the corner?  There's got to be something big coming soon!!  Oh, I did also teach on Sunday also.  I think it went pretty well. 

Tanner is still trying to keep busy but doesn't have a lot to do.  He and Jared spent Tuesday afternoon putting together a bunk bed for a single mom in our ward.  On Wednesday night he worked--his first shift--and he said it went well and he enjoyed the work.  He was on call Thursday morning but they didn't end up needing him after all so he only worked 4 hours.  He definitely needs to find something else.  And he certainly has plenty of time to look, but you know how that is...job hunting is no one's favorite activity so he isn't feeling very motivated to look even though he has time to do it.  

On Wednesday Tanner and I went to the temple.  He did baptisms and I did initiatories.  I finished before he did, so I got to watch a few baptisms and confirmations while I waited for him.  I always love sitting in the baptistry!  There is such a wonderful feeling there.  It always comes over me just how significant and important the ordinance of baptism is.  They were very glad to have Tanner there because a family had brought some names in but they didn't have anyone to be a proxy for the males, so Tanner was able to be the proxy for them.  

After we finished at the temple, we walked all the way around it and Tanner took some pictures (except for the one he is in):  

Okay, actually those fist two he took in the car while we were winding our way up Beach Drive towards the temple.  I always love it when the temple first appears among the trees!  The ones below are the ones he took as we walked all the way around:

On our way home from the temple, we stopped and had lunch with Frank and a couple of his co workers.  I'm gad we went, but I was exhausted by the end of the day since I also had to go shopping and that evening I had my meeting with the bishop.  Plus I had to get Jared to YM and basketball practice (and back) and Tanner to work and back all in the same evening.  I was pretty much going non stop all day.

Jared is keeping busy with school and a few rehearsals for the next play, plus he worked a concert last weekend (which he will get paid for, thankfully).  Last night he went to a play at another high school because a friend is in it, plus the play is Legally Blonde, which they did at TJ a few years ago.  He enjoyed it but didn't think it was as good as TJ's performance.  Tonight Jared is on a camp out.  Yes, in frigid temperatures!!  Tanner was thinking about going too but decided he doesn't really want to hang out with the high school crowd anymore.  Can't say I blame him.

Frank had a super busy weekend...he was working for a client (who was moving) all day on Friday and nearly all day on Saturday too.  Then on Sunday he wasn't feeling well at all so he stayed home from church to get some rest but a big issue at Marriott came up so he ended up being on the phone most of that time.  He still has a lot going on and I think is generally feeling overwhelmed.  He volunteered to drive boys up to the camp out tonight but it turned out they had enough drivers without him so he didn't have to go...I'm sure he didn't mind that.  

We had missionaries over for dinner on Saturday and thankfully Tanner was around since Frank didn't make it home and Jared was gone too.  We have a new Elder in our ward who is from South Africa.  He has a really great British sounding accent, kind of fun!

I did make some progress on my de-cluttering project this week.  I started working on Scott's room and got a lot done.  It doesn't look that much better yet because I have a pile of stuff that needs to go to Goodwill and Frank has several things he needs to go through, but I did get most of my craft stuff moved out of there (or disposed of).  Tanner will probably move into that room when I'm done cleaning it out.

We did have an interesting (not in a good way) event happen in Frederick this week...while a JV basketball game was going on at Frederick High School, a shooting occurred just outside the gym and two students were wounded.  This is not Jared's high school...he goes to Governor Thomas Johnson High School.  The game was between Frederick and TJ High schools, though, so there were a number of kids from his school present, and it's possible the wounded students were from his school since the news report stated that they were Frederick County Public School students, but not Frederick High students.  The staff who were at the game immediately put the school on lockdown and called the police.  Everyone was moved to the cafeteria and the police interviewed everyone so it took hours to get everyone out of there.  The shooters fled and still haven't been caught.  The wounded students were flown to a trauma center in Baltimore, but they are doing ok...their injuries were not life threatening.  To aid the investigation, Frederick High School and an adjoining middle school were both closed yesterday.  I expected we'd see a greater police presence at all the schools the rest of this week, and sure enough...when I drove by Jared's school yesterday and today, there were three police cars out in front instead of the usual one.  Hopefully they will track down the shooters and nothing like that will happen again.  I don't like it, but I'm not overly concerned, and I'm a little impatient with the parents being quoted in the paper who are saying things like they'll never let their kids go to a basketball game again.  I don't see the point in living in fear all the time.

That is all the happenings around here for this week.