Weekly Reviews April 20 & April 27 '18

Since we were in Utah, I completely forgot to write a post last week. I didn't even think of it until this week was about half over, and by that time I decided I might as well just do 2 weeks at once. So here it goes! Since I saw so many of you last week and you were doing a lot of the same things I was, this post hopefully won't be all that long. This past week was fairly quiet, also, so I don't think there is a lot to report. I always manage to come up with a lot to say, though!

Saturday (April 14th) - It was a pretty busy day. Frank took Seth to swimming lessons so that I could stay home and figure out how to create a Google document (for people to share memories of Dad). As soon as Seth got home, we went to the church to meet with two of the other Webelos for a den activity. This was one of the things the three of them needed to do for their Arrow of Light requirements--they had to plan a den activity. They each had different assignments to prepare for the activity. They played some games, had some treats, created a patrol flag, and Seth showed them how his Lego boost set works. (He had built a bulldozer the night before and he showed them how to program it to do different things.)  I think the boys had a fun time. They did most of those things independently, so while they did their activities the other two moms and I sent a couple of emails to set up a few of the other things that they need to do and they also let me talk about my dad, which I appreciated! (The other two moms are both good friends of mine.) After the activity, I had an appointment to get my hair cut, so by the time I got home from that it was mid afternoon. I cleaned the kitchen floor and Seth took a shower. I don't remember what else I did, I just know I was busy.

Sunday (April 15th) - I don't have anything on my calendar, although of course we went to church. A number of people offered me comfort about Dad, which I appreciated. Oh yes, and Frank was released as the EQ president. I was thinking during Sacrament Meeting that it had been over 5 1/2 years that either Frank or I had to be at Ward Council and how nice it would be that neither of us would have to go now. Silly me, I should have known better! Frank came into Sunday School and sat by me and told me that he had just been called to be the ward mission leader! So he will still be going to ward council, but that's okay because I think ward mission leader is an awesome calling and Frank will do a great job. That evening I was really tired and just wanted to crash but there was a fireside at our stake center that sounded really cool that I really wanted to go to. So I debated back and forth for a while and finally decided to go to the fireside and I'm really glad I did. Frank came too. The speaker was a guy who was born and raised in a very wealthy Muslim family in UAE and who later joined the church when he was in London as a student. He was a great speaker and his story was incredible.

Monday (April 16th) - This day was crazy!! I was doing laundry and most of the usual things, although I didn't go grocery shopping because we weren't going to be home all week. I did need to go to the store to get a few things for our trip, but I didn't manage to get that done until Tuesday morning. I was trying to get some thoughts together for my talk for Dad's funeral but I didn't get too far with that. I was also trying to go through my photos to find pictures of Dad, but I didn't get very far with that either. As batches of laundry were getting done, I started putting clothes in suitcases but most of the packing didn't get done until late evening. In the meantime, we were also trying to clean out the downstairs bedroom and dispose of the bunk beds because we wanted our neighbor to paint the bedroom while we were gone. A family in our ward was interested in one of the sets of bunk beds, but didn't let us know for sure until early evening that they really wanted them. So then Frank had to take the beds apart and he also helped load up the pieces of the bunk bed and the unload them at this family's house. While he was gone helping with the bunk beds, I was sweeping, vacuuming, and cleaning in the bedroom because of course when the bunk beds were removed there was a lot of dirt and dust underneath (they'd been there for about 11 years!) When Frank returned from delivering the bunk beds, he informed me that he had found someone who wanted the other set of bunk beds, so we helped get those moved out too. By then it was late evening and we threw the rest of the things we needed into suitcases (hoping we hadn't forgotten anything) and went to bed!

Tuesday (April 17th) - As I mentioned, we ran to the store that morning to get a few things we needed for our trip. Other than that, we spent most of the day traveling. The flight was uneventful (which is how I like it!). I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't winter, though--it was rainy and cold when we left Frederick and flying over the country we saw a lot of places covered in snow:

Seth was very calm for nearly all of the flight, and then the last half hour or so he started bouncing off the walls a bit. Frank and I looked at each other and said "Oh yeah, his medicine wears off right about now."

When we picked up our rental car, I was thrilled to see the license plate. Seth and I did a fist bump!:

I was anxious to see Mom as soon as we got to Utah, of course, so we went to Mom's house first. We stayed there quite a while visiting with her and with some of Curtis's family. Jared was there when we got there and Scott arrived shortly after we did, so we got to see them too. It was really great to see everybody and to visit with them. We stayed at Mom's until late evening and then went to Amy's to spend the night. Some people in her ward had provided dinner for all of us, which I thought was really thoughtful and nice. We got to bed late and I was really tired but I never did sleep very well while we were in Utah. I usually went to sleep fairly quickly, but then I would wake up an hour or two later and lie awake for hours. Then I would also wake up pretty early. I have been sleeping much better since I got home, thankfully.

Wednesday (18th) - I admit it, this day was pretty stressful and emotional for me. In the morning I worked on my talk for the funeral but didn't get as far with that as I was hoping. I was also trying to find more photos of Dad to share (for the slideshow). I was very thankful for the opportunity to speak at Dad's funeral--I really did want to do it--but it stressed me out a bit, mostly because I just wanted to do justice to the great man that my Dad was. It was challenging to condense his amazing life down to a relatively small amount of time. I also didn't have a lot of time to prepare, what with getting ready for our trip and traveling and all. So on Wednesday I was really feeling the pressure! We hadn't seen Tanner yet and of course we really wanted to see him, so we had arranged to meet him for lunch at BYU. We went to his apartment first and met most of his roommates as well as his girlfriend, Darlee. Then we went to get some lunch at the Cougareat. Darlee came with us and Jared's girlfriend, Jessie, met us there a little later too. After lunch, Tanner went back to his apartment to pack up a few things and he came with us back to Lehi / American Fork. We went to Mom's house after that because we wanted to see her and there were a lot more family members there by then as well. It was really great to see everyone. I still needed to work on my talk, though, so I went in the office and worked on that some more until it was time to go back to Amy's to change for the viewing. Okay, so maybe I cried for a while in the office before I worked on the talk, but just for a little while. I got a lot of the talk figured out and just needed to finalize it, so I felt a little better by the time we left there. At the viewing, I saw a lot more family members including many I hadn't seen in a long time, plus old friends from some of the wards we used to live in as a family, which was really cool. I loved all the displays and the slide show that many of my siblings worked to put together. I wish I had been nearby to help with some of those things! Overall, it was a good evening to be together with so many family members and it helped me to feel better. When we got back to Amy's house that evening, I finished up my talk and we went to bed. Tanner and Jared both went to Scott's to spend the night.

Thursday (19th) - Thursday was the funeral, of course. At the short viewing before the funeral, I saw a lot more family members and friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. The whole day was a really sweet, healing experience. One of my main concerns about speaking was that I would cry through my whole talk. I prayed a lot about it, though, and those prayers were definitely answered. As soon as the funeral began, I felt this completely calm feeling come over me and I cried very little. Music in particular seems to really touch my soul and make me emotional but although the music was absolutely beautiful and it did touch my soul, it didn't make me cry. I was actually able to thoroughly enjoy it instead. Tender mercies! I really felt those on Thursday. Mom was amazing, too. She was so strong! When I stood up to speak, I looked down at her and she gave me this big, proud, encouraging, "I know you can do it" kind of smile. (Thanks, Mom!!) So Erick and I both spoke longer than we should have and the funeral went a little long, but hopefully no one minded too much! The whole funeral and burial were beautiful and well thought out, and I appreciate how much time and work my Mom and the local siblings put into planning it all. They did a superb job and I think we really captured Dad's personality and who he was in all that was said and done.

My silly boys!

Erick with three of his beautiful granddaughters

Scott, Tanner and Jared were so honored to be some of the pallbearers.

Me with my Mom and siblings

Mom with her two living brothers and their wives

This is the first time all 6 of us have been together since May, 2015!

When we were leaving the cemetery, I felt bad for a moment because I felt like we were all leaving Dad behind. But then I remembered that really it was just his body we were leaving there, not Dad. He is in a much better place, happy and probably closer to us than we realize. So after that, I didn't feel so bad. Mom's ward provided a very delicious and abundant meal for us at the church, where there was more visiting and love. After that, we went back to Amy's to change clothes and to rest for a while and then we all gathered at Mom's house and spent the rest of the evening visiting together. The house was packed to the gills and it was wonderful!

Scott can sleep anywhere!

Friday (the 20th) - In the morning I went the the temple. We're feeling pretty bereft of a temple out here so I had to go while I had the chance and there were so many temples to choose from! :) I really wanted to go to the Provo City Center Temple, because I had not been inside it before (since it became a temple--I went in the Provo Tabernacle many times before it burned down) and everyone else was really nice to humor me and agreed to go there. Erick & Liz, Curtis & Julia, Erin, Daniel, Amanda, Tanner, Shellie, Amy and Maddie all came too. I was one of the last ones to arrive in the chapel and when I got there, the first thing I saw was a whole row full of my family members sitting there in white. I almost started crying; it was such a beautiful sight! We were all exhausted from the last week's events and I know we were all concerned about staying awake. I don't know how everyone else did, but I was remarkably alert through the whole session. Part of that was probably because I was drinking in the amazing architectural beauty all around me. Such a beautiful temple! It was really the perfect thing to do the day after a funeral; so comforting! While I was at the temple, Frank took Seth to the Jordan River Temple openhouse. I would have liked to have done that too but there wasn't time to do both and I decided I wanted to do some temple work more than I wanted to go to the openhouse (I can do a session at the Jordan River Temple the next time I visit.) They really enjoyed their visit to the openhouse and report that the temple is very beautiful! After we all got done with our temple trips, we went to Mom's house to visit for a while. When we first arrived, there actually wasn't anyone else there but other family members began to arrive not long after. We stayed there until dinner time--we had arranged to take Tanner & Jared and their girlfriends to dinner that evening. (We would have taken Scott too but he had to work. His work was moving locations that weekend from one warehouse to another so it was a very busy time and he had to work long shifts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.) We had a nice dinner with the boys and I got to know Darlee a little bit better. She is a sweet girl. When we finished dinner, we had to say goodbye to Tanner because we were leaving early the next morning. Then we went back to Mom's house where a lot more people had gathered and stayed until late visiting again. We had to say lots of goodbyes that night since most of us were leaving in the next day or two. It was sad to say good bye, but helpful to know that we will all be together again in a few months.

Saturday (the 21st) - We spent most of the day traveling (especially since we lost 2 hours going east). By the time we got home and got some dinner, it was evening. Jared went to his former high school to see a play--they had an alumni night so he got free tickets. The rest of us spent the evening unpacking and doing laundry. The compassionate service leader showed up with a card and a plant from the sisters in the ward, which was really nice. I'm happy to say that the plant is still alive...we'll see if I can keep it alive! (I am notorious for killing plants.)

(Goodbye to Utah)

(The plant that I hopefully won't kill.)

Sunday (the 22nd) - Another much needed day of rest! I took Jared to choir practice with me. I totally forgot that we were singing that day until after practice ended. The performance went fine, though. Dad was sustained as Ward Mission Leader and got set apart after church. There was a planning meeting for Cub Scout Day Camp that evening but knowing that I would probably be exhausted from my trip, I had asked to be excused from the meeting. And I was exhausted, so I was glad I didn't need to go.

Monday (the 23rd) - This day I was mostly concerned with getting caught up with things like laundry and grocery shopping. Unfortunately, when I picked up a particularly heavy basket of laundry, I felt pain shoot through my lower back on the left side. I did not injure my back as seriously as I have a few times in the past, so at least I was not flat on my back in excruciating pain all week, but my back definitely hurt all week and it was difficult to do a lot of things that require bending over. I couldn't exercise all week, either. Frank and Jared both helped me a lot and I tried to take it easy as much as I could and late in the day yesterday my back started to feel a lot better. It is still sort of tender and I feel twinges occasionally and have to be careful, but it's a lot better than it was earlier in the week. Jared didn't work on Monday so he came with me to the store to help lift bags of groceries. Monday was also our 26th wedding anniversary. We really didn't have time to plan anything special after being gone all last week, but I gave Frank a card and he brought me some roses when he came home from work.

Frank had an interview at work that day. We found out last week while we were out of town that he didn't get any of the positions that he already interviewed for, but they also wanted him to interview for three more positions. So he had one interview on Monday and an interview for two more positions on Wednesday. Hopefully he will get one of those! We are just waiting to find out. We don't know how soon we will get any word on that.

Tuesday (the 24th) - We had a pretty sunrise.

I did mostly the normal things this day. Jared worked every day (Tuesday through today) from 6:30 to 2:00. When he got home from work on Tuesday, he cleaned the shower and tub for me because I couldn't do that. (I did manage to clean the rest of the bathrooms.) After I picked Seth up from school, I took him straight to the doctor for a check up on his medicine. We had den meetings that evening. We had arranged to have a Frederick City alderman come talk to the boys because that is one of the things Seth and the other Webelos needed to do for their Arrow of Light.  The Bears also worked on carving soap / whittling sticks after the alderman's visit, and they all finished up the requirements for that adventure. After den meetings, a member of our ward came and talked to Seth and the other Webelos about energy usage (he knows a lot about solar energy) because that was another thing they needed to do for their Arrow of Light. So we made a lot of progress on the Arrow of Light requirements, and Seth only has a couple of things left to do.

Wednesday (the 25th) - After taking Seth to school, I took Snickers to the vet. He needed 2 of his shots, including Rabies, updated, and he also needed more bloodwork done to check on his liver. I don't have the results back on his liver yet. The vet was busy and I ended up waiting quite a while and that was the day my back was hurting the worst so that wasn't very fun but I survived. I went to the religion class that afternoon and we talked about a couple of chapters in Revelation. That evening we had the Elders over for dinner and afterwards Frank had a correlation meeting with them, the assistant ward mission leader (who was also just sustained on Sunday), and a representative from the Elder's Quorum.

Thursday (the 26th) - Frank worked from home and it was mostly a normal Thursday with the usual chores to do. I did a few assessments on Seth that evening (on Wednesday too)--I am hoping to finish those up soon so that I can start working on the treatments with him. Jared went to Institute that evening and I read a lot of Percy Jackson to Seth.

Friday (today!) - I had ukulele class this morning and I spent most of the rest of the day updating the budget (2 weeks' worth) and writing this post. This evening Frank and I went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We splurged a little and went to this really nice restaurant that we haven't been to in a long time. They make the BEST crab cakes! It was nice to get away by ourselves and just talk for a little while.

Remember that our neighbor was going to paint the downstairs bedroom while we were gone? Well, he ended up being really busy and didn't get much done but he did patch the walls and got the priming done. He came over a couple of afternoons this week and finished the project. I think it looks a lot better now; don't you?

Before:

After:

I am really happy to be rid of the orange and blue walls! Now we need to figure out what we are going to do to the floor (it's still bare concrete--we might install some carpet tiles) and then we can start moving Frank's office into that room.

One more thing that I want to write down so I won't forget it. Last Tuesday night (the 17th, while we were in Utah), I had a dream. I dreamed that I was speaking at Dad's funeral and I looked down and he was sitting in the audience, and he was smiling. Then we were all at Mom's house talking and visiting and sharing memories of Dad, and he was there again. I could see him, but no one else could. At one point someone said something like "maybe Dad wouldn't like us to be laughing so much" but I looked at Dad and he just smiled again and said it was all fine; he wanted us to be happy. I can't explain it really, but he just looked so happy and content and at peace. It made me feel so good! I know it was just a dream, but that dream has really comforted me and helped me to grasp that he really is happy and at peace.

That's all I have to report from these parts.

Weekly Review April 13 '18

I've been in touch with almost everybody this week so I don't think I have a lot to say but I thought I'd do a brief post, just for my personal history's sake. 

So when I left off last time, it was Saturday evening. I forgot to mention that our ward was supposed to have an Easter egg hunt / activity that morning and Seth was not happy about missing it, but then they had to cancel it because it wasn't very warm and the location for the hunt was very muddy. That was actually the second time they had to cancel because the original date for the activity was Saturday March 24th, and that ended up being the Saturday after we had the snowstorm, so there was still snow on the ground and it was very cold. This time they decided not to re-schedule the activity. Instead, they put the candy from the eggs into bags for each of the kids and gave them to the parents on Sunday.

Speaking of the weather--it has mostly been cool / cold with some rain this whole week. Last Friday was fairly nice but a few days ago we were wearing coats. Then yesterday a warm front came in and it was quite warm (70s). Today it is pretty hot (high 80s). It's supposed to cool back down to the 60s on Sunday and then go back to the 50s for the next couple of days after that. This has definitely been a crazy spring! I'm not sure if it is ever going to get warm and stay warm. I hear it snowed in Utah today. Crazy!!

Sunday: Frank's parents headed back home that morning. It was mostly a normal Sunday with choir practice and church. However, Frank did not get released--surprise! They decided not to release the current EQ presidents until they had called the new ones (makes sense). It's Friday afternoon and we haven't received any summons to meet with the stake president, so we are thinking Frank is not going to be re-called as the new EQ president (unless they haven't made up their mind yet). It will be interesting to see what happens this Sunday. After church a new family who just moved into the ward invited us and a couple of other families to come over for dinner. We came home and made most of the things we had planned to make for dinner and took them over with us to share with everyone. All the food was yummy and we enjoyed visiting and getting to know this family better.

Monday: This was a pretty busy day because besides the usual things I also got some things ready for the next day's den meeting and I finished the personal property tax return for the business and filed it. I picked up my friend's kids from school and they were here for a little while after school too (until their dad picked them up on his way home from work).

Tuesday: There was no school on Tuesday which seems pretty random but it was because the last day of the 3rd term was on Monday. It's hard to believe that we are already in the last term for this school year! Where did the year go? Having a day off worked out well for us because Seth needed to make up the swimming lesson that he missed on Saturday (when we were in Philadelphia) and he does much better in the morning because his medication hasn't worn off. It was going to be difficult to do a make up session on a Saturday (after his normal lesson) because we had things planned for two of the next Saturdays already. Instead, I was able to schedule his make up lesson for Tuesday in the late morning. Other than that, it was a regular Tuesday with the normal chores and den meetings that evening. My boys worked on their soap carvings and they each finished one.

Wednesday: I didn't wake up as early as I usually do so I ended up switching things around a bit. I did Walmart shopping after the religion class so that I would have time to exercise and shower before the class. Besides doing that in the morning, I also got some other chores done like dusting and making a doctor and a vet appointment (both of which I have had to change since they were for next week). The class was nice and it was our last lesson in the "Eternal Family" institute course. Next we are going to study the book of Revelation for a while before starting a new course.  I also went over our income taxes so that they will be ready to file that day and I picked up my friend's kids from school again. My visiting teachers came to see me that night and it was shortly before they left that I got the text message from Amy about Dad being in acute renal failure. (I received the earlier messages and knew he was at the hospital already, so of course I was already worried.) Anyway, I stayed up pretty late waiting for updates on Dad and then once I did lie down it took me a long time to go to sleep. I only slept about an hour before I woke back up and was awake for a couple of hours. I did get a couple of hours of sleep before Scott called us shortly before 6:00 am (our time). By the time I went to bed I was pretty sure he wasn't going to make it (probably why I had trouble going to sleep and didn't sleep very soundly) but things did progress much quicker than I thought they would. I'm really grateful Scott called and that someone (Erick maybe?) had the idea to do Facetime so that I could talk to Dad one more time. Plus, it was comforting to see many of you there. I am really grateful that both Scott and Tanner could be there since I couldn't. When we were awake between 1:00 and 3:30ish, Frank was looking at plane tickets and offering to get me on a plane by 6:00 am, but that didn't feel right to me. (I'm glad I didn't do that because I would have missed the chance to talk to Dad and I would not have gotten there in time anyway.) Although I was sad through this whole thing, of course, I did feel very calm and at peace. I just knew it was Heavenly Father's will for him to come home. It felt right to me and it was fairly easy for me to accept that, even though I was sad.

Thursday: Seth was okay going to school. When I was talking to Dad on Facetime, Frank woke him up to let him know what was going on and he came in and sat beside me for a few minutes. When I asked him if he wanted to say anything, he hopped up and quickly said "tell him I'll miss him" and then fled from the room. After I got off of Facetime, I went to find Seth and he was in his bed crying. I crawled in with him for a while and he cried for a while and then he was okay. He perked up and wanted to go to school. I figured he would be happier there anyway, with a normal routine instead of staying at home where we were pretty busy communicating with everyone about arrangements. Both Frank and I were very tired (as I know all of you were) but even though I did lie down for a while in the late afternoon, I wasn't able to sleep. I did sleep pretty well last night, though. Anyway, we did get the basic stuff done (like laundry) but that's about it. I took my friend's kids to school and Frank picked them all up that afternoon. Frank worked from home and stayed near me all day, which I appreciated.

Friday: Today I don't feel like I have accomplished much. I took my friend's kids to school again and picked them all up after school. Their dad came to get them a little while ago. Seth is currently outside playing with some of the kids in the neighborhood--enjoying the warmer weather! I woke up later again so only had time to exercise before taking Seth to school and had to shower after I got back. Frank had set up a lunch date for us with another couple in the ward earlier this week so we went to lunch. I also had to go to the vet's to pick up more food for Snickers since we'll be out soon. I haven't even started on the budget yet--that's what I'll be doing next. These last couple of days have been rough, but it has been nice to talk to so many of you, and I am looking forward to seeing so many of you soon. The silver lining in the cloud! I am grateful for my family and I love all of you so much!

Weekly Review April 7 '18

This week was somewhat eventful, at least the weekends were.

Saturday: As I anticipated, Saturday was mostly filled up with General Conference. Seth had swimming in the morning. We also dyed Easter eggs:

I finished the band on the hat I've been crocheting:

And I did a few assessments with Seth. (No picture of that!)

Oh, and here is Snickers, hoping to get a hand out from our General Conference snack stash:

Conference was, of course, wonderful! The solemn assembly in the first session to sustain President Nelson was really powerful. All the talks were, too. Frank and Sam went to the church to watch the priesthood session, mainly because there was an ice cream social before it started and Frank was asked to set up the technology stuff. They didn't get home until about 10:30 and I was wondering why until they got home and Sam told me there were some announcements at the Priesthood session and that Frank was feeling kind of blown away. He said he'd let Frank tell me why, though! So Frank explained the announcement about the High Priest and Elders Quorums combining and then added that our bishop grabbed him and the (former) High Priest Group Leader right after the meeting to talk to them for a while. He told Frank that for the time being he was in charge! Frank met with the High Priest Group Leader on Tuesday so he could pass on some information and then on Wednesday evening he met with the bishop again. The bishop told him that he will be released on Sunday (tomorrow). He also said that he has to meet with the Stake Presidency on Tuesday and at that time he has been asked to give them 5 names of people he would recommend for the new EQ president. He told Frank that Frank will be one of the 5, so it's possible he will still being doing the same thing (just with more responsibility!) We'll see what happens. He has been serving as Elders Quorum president for a little over 2 1/2 years, so it's possible they will decide he's been doing it long enough. We'll just have to wait to see. In the meantime, Frank said Tanner sent him a text message during the Priesthood session that said "Sorry God fired you." Tanner always makes me laugh!!

Sunday: Easter and more General Conference. I think the changes from Home and Visiting Teaching to Ministering are perfect. Actually, I feel like I made that switch personally a couple of years ago! Not really on purpose--I just gradually stopped worrying so much about visiting everyone every month and started to do whatever they seemed to need the most (which sometimes included visiting every month, of course!) My overall feeling about all the changes is that we are becoming more unified and moving more towards a "Zion" society. I think the changes are simple but will make a huge difference. Exciting times we live in!! During the end of the last session we ate a nice Easter dinner, and after the session ended Frank took Sam back home. Pictures from Sunday:

It's always exciting to see Tim!

The finished Easter eggs, some of which became deviled eggs for our dinner.

Seth enjoys having Sam here!

A few pictures of Easter dinner:

I was proud of myself for coming up with a nice dinner that Frank could actually eat! We had ham, deviled eggs (he didn't eat those because he doesn't like them), green salad, fruit salad, and a special diabetic friendly potato salad. It was good, too. It was made from red potatoes, green onions, real bacon bits, and a little bit of ranch dressing. That's it! It was easy and tasty and had a lot fewer carbs than most potato salads do.

That evening I made the bow for the hat and on Monday I sewed it onto the hat, so it is done:

I was happy that it turned out looking like the hat in the picture on the directions! I sent it to my friend on Tuesday. It turned out to be a fairly easy and fun project. I'm not sure what I am going to make next!

Monday: Seth didn't have school. I kept busy with the usual things and I also got to talk to Amy for quite a while. Frank went to work at his office and during his lunch hour he went to IKEA and bought the bed that we've been wanting to get (because it was finally in stock). The missionaries came over for a little while that evening to help carry the boxes with the bed in it upstairs. Actually, they did it for us; we didn't help. We really appreciated that, since neither Frank nor I should be carrying heavy boxes up stairs. We offered to feed them, but they had already had dinner. They did accept some ice cream sandwiches, though. It wasn't very warm that day, but it didn't snow as originally predicted.

Tuesday: Remember my friend who had her gall bladder removed and was having a rough recovery? Well, the previous Friday she was in so much pain that she went to the ER and they discovered she had some complications from the surgery. She ended up having another surgery that day and a third one on Tuesday. She was in the hospital that whole time--from Friday to Wednesday. Because of that, I took her kids to school every day this week and picked them up afterwards every day but yesterday. On Tuesday their grandma brought them over to my house on her way to work, on Wednesday I picked them up from their grandma's house (because their grandma had gone out of town) and the other two days I picked them up from their house. They came to our house after school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and their dad picked them up on his way home from work. I think I will probably be helping some more this coming week because in the third surgery their mom had a drain put in and it won't be removed until this coming Friday, probably. While she has the drain in, she is still on some fairly strong pain medications so she really shouldn't be driving. I'm planning to check with her tomorrow to see what she needs. Meanwhile, other people in the ward took her family meals every day and took care of her youngest daughter (who isn't in school yet) so I haven't been the only one helping them. What an ordeal it has been for them, though! Anyway, I kept busy on Tuesday with all the regular chores. Seth and I had den meetings that evening and I had Cub Committee Meeting after den meeting. Frank had his first interview on Tuesday and he felt like it went well. As I mentioned before, he met with the High Priest Group Leader that evening. After he got home from that meeting, he worked on the bed and got part of it put together. He and I worked on it a little bit earlier that day, too.

Wednesday: For the adult religion class that day we played "Conference Jeopardy", which was pretty fun. We played women against the men and the women won--by a lot! :) After the class I went to see my friend Wanda. It was her birthday the next day, so I took her a birthday card, which she loved. I also showed her how to watch General Conference talks on her tablet. She was with her (non member) family over the weekend and hadn't been able to watch any of General Conference while it was happening. I had book chat that evening, where we talked about both Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and another book called Wonder. I finished Bury My Heart last week and then read Wonder in just a couple of days. Bury My Heart was hard to get through but worth reading and Wonder was very easy to read but also worth reading--I loved it, actually! I am definitely reading that one to Seth. I think every middle and high school student should read it. Before I went to book chat I took Seth over to Renata's house to play with her son Sammy. When Frank finished his meeting with the bishop, he picked Seth up and then went home and finished putting the bed together. It turned out looking great! I haven't taken any pictures since I added the sheets, but here it is:

The piece with the drawers in it slides out and one of the mattresses can be put on that part so that it's big enough for two people. The drawers hold quite a bit of stuff, too. (I haven't filled them, but they are pretty large.)

Thursday: I kept busy all day with the usual chores, plus I got some emails sent for Cub scouts, got the upstairs bedroom put back together (which mostly involved moving the furniture back to where it should be, plus dusting, vacuuming, and making the bed), did a few extra loads of laundry because I was washing most of the bedding in the house, and packed a few things for Seth and I in a suitcase because we were leaving on an overnight trip on Friday. (Frank added his stuff to the suitcase later.) Frank's parents arrived early that evening. Originally, Frank asked them if they could come stay with Seth while we went on a trip to the Philadelphia Temple, but he didn't know that I had promised Seth that he would get to go with us and swim in the pool at the hotel. So Seth came with us, but Frank's parents decided to come up anyway. They did stay with Snickers, which helped us, and it has been nice to see them! Frank had his second interview on Thursday and he felt good about that one, too. I'm not sure how long it will be until they make a decision and we find out if he got one of those jobs or not.

Friday: I got the budget done in the morning and then we ran errands to get a couple of things ready for our trip. The Philadelphia Temple is fairly small and they don't have a lot of sessions. On Fridays, they have 2 sessions in the morning and 2 in the evening--one at 6:30 and the other at 8:00. I had called and reserved a spot at the 6:30 session on Friday. Frank was scheduled for the 7:00 am session on Saturday. We got a hotel about 12 miles away, in New Jersey. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to get from Frederick to Philadelphia, but knowing there could be traffic issues, we decided to pick up Seth from school a little early and leave by 2:30. Well, guess what? I still didn't make it to the temple in time for the 6:30 session! (I did get there about 6:35, though.) The main problem was that traffic was even worse than we anticipated. We still might possibly have made it in time (although I would have been very rushed) except that half an hour into the trip Seth said he needed to go to the bathroom (even though he went right before we left!) So we stopped, and when he came out of the bathroom he told us he had just thrown up! What?!! He didn't feel very well for the rest of the trip and we stopped one other time because he thought he was going to throw up again. He didn't, but the two stops slowed us down a lot. Mostly it was the traffic, though, which was truly terrible. In spite of all of that, I stayed calm the whole trip. I just really didn't want to arrive at the temple upset and frazzled, plus I just felt like things were going to work out. So after the second stop when it was obvious I wasn't going to get there in time, I called the temple and was able to change my reservation from the 6:30 session to the 8:00 session. When I got to the temple I was able to do some initiatories and still had plenty of time to sit in the chapel listening to music and just generally enjoying the peace and beauty of the temple while waiting for the 8:00 session. It was just really wonderful! Plus the Philadelphia Temple is absolutely gorgeous!! I went to the open house and I remembered it was beautiful, but I'd forgotten many of the details. It was nice to have the time to just sit and soak up all the details and really enjoy how beautiful it was!

Meanwhile, Frank and Seth went to the hotel and they didn't have nearly as peaceful a time since Seth threw up between the temple and the hotel. (Luckily, we had brought some larger ziplock bags with us!) After he threw up he started feeling better though and was able to eat some dinner. Seth fell asleep before it was time to pick me up so Frank had to wake him up to go pick me up, unfortunately. He fell back asleep on the way back to the hotel and when we got back to the hotel I quickly helped him change into pajamas and he went right back to sleep. I think he was a little feverish--he felt warm and when I was helping him change he was so cold that his teeth were chattering. We stopped on our way to the hotel to get me some dinner so when we got back to the hotel I ate dinner while Seth and Frank went to sleep. Then I went to bed too!

The temple when I arrived.

The temple when I left.

Saturday: Seth woke up around 2:00 am and threw up one more time but then he went right back to sleep. Frank got up early and went to the 7:00 am session, as planned. He was in a Spanish session, but they gave him headphones so he could hear the session in English! He said there were about 20 English speakers in the session. He really enjoyed being in the temple again. Meanwhile, Seth and I woke up shortly before 7:00. Seth was feeling well enough that he wanted to try eating something so I went downstairs to see what the breakfast buffet had to offer. As far as Fairfield Inn breakfast buffets go, it wasn't the best I've seen. There were a lot fewer selections to choose from than normal and the only thing they had that I thought Seth would eat was waffles and some coffee cake looking stuff. So I made a waffle and got him a piece of the coffee cake bread. I took his food up to him and then went back down to get food for myself. Seth enjoyed watching cartoons and he did eat a little bit. At first he said he didn't think he wanted to try swimming but after I took a shower he changed his mind (of course!) I decided to take him down to try out the pool although I couldn't get in with him. When we got down there, though, the water was quite cold. He stood on the steps for quite a while trying to get used to the temperature but then I noticed a sign that said not to get in the pool if you had had any gastro-intestinal symptoms in the last 7 days, so I told him he'd better get out. I didn't want him to get anyone else sick. Meanwhile, Frank had arrived back from the temple so we decided to pack up and head home. The trip home was much quicker because there wasn't any traffic problems. Seth started feeling sick again but thankfully never threw up. He slept for about 45 minutes of the trip. We got home before 1:00 and since then Frank has been helping his dad with some computer stuff and I have been unpacking and writing this post. Seth has been drinking soda, eating crackers, and watching television and he seems to be feeling better than he was. Hopefully this is just a 24 hour bug!

That's all I can think of to report this week, except that last week Seth and I finished the Percy Jackson book we were reading and started the third book of the series, which is called The Mark of Athena. We are enjoying reading this series together.