Weekly Review May 25 '18

I don't think this week was quite as eventful, so this post will probably be shorter. No more crazy weather, anyway! It is actually quite pleasant and we are enjoying some sunshine. It feels like May again, instead of March!

Friday (the 18th): I mentioned in last week's post that Seth and Frank probably wouldn't go to the Father / Son campout, and they didn't. Instead, Frank and I went on a date. We went to a book store and browsed around, but didn't buy anything--we're trying not to spend money unless we have to. We did get something to eat while we were out, though. It was nice to spend some time together.

Saturday (the 19th): We were pretty busy. Seth had his usual swimming lesson in the morning. After that, Frank and I went to a baptism. The baptism was for a 10 year old girl in our ward. I was her mom's visiting teacher for a few years (that was just changed recently) and I consider her to be a good friend. A lot of her family came to the baptism and it was fun to meet them because I'd heard quite a bit about them. This little girl's mom and dad aren't together anymore and her dad is not a church member but he gave permission for her to be baptized and he came to the baptism. After she was baptized and confirmed, she gave her mom a big hug and then she went to her dad to hug him too. I will never forget the look on her face--the way she looked at her dad, I could just tell that it meant so much to her to be able to be baptized and she was thanking him for giving permission with the look on her face. It was so, so sweet! As the ward mission leader, Frank was in charge of filling the font and getting the programs ready and helping set everything up. He was a little anxious about it all, but he did a great job. After the baptism, I had an appointment to get my hair done. Frank and Jared both needed haircuts too so they came over and got haircuts while the color was processing on my hair. When I got home from that, Jared had cleaned the kitchen floor for me, which was really nice! It rained a lot on Saturday and Jared didn't have to work because the baseball game was cancelled. We didn't get as much rain as they thought we would, though, and there were not more problems with flooding, thankfully.

Sunday (the 20th): The sun came out for part of the day, which was super nice after all the rain and cloudy days. There was kind of an adventure at the church that morning (before our meetings started; we meet at 1:00). The fire alarm went off and the fire trucks showed up and since the firemen had to inspect the whole building, they kicked everybody out. One ward was finishing their meetings and another ward was finishing their sacrament meeting. They needed the parking lot cleared of all the vehicles too, so everybody just had to go home.  We heard about this shortly before Jared and I were leaving to go to choir practice, so we weren't sure if we'd be able to have practice or not but when we got to the church all the firetrucks were gone and the building was open. It was weird to get there and have the parking lot be almost completely empty! The YSA ward, which meets at the same time we do (they have their Sacrament Meeting last and we have ours first), cancelled their meetings so we were the only ward in the building for our meetings. It was a lot quieter and a lot less crowded, which was kind of nice, but strange. I was substituting for the RS secretary again. Jared met with the stake president right after church and told him that he had decided not to go back to his mission. We thought he was going to wait a little longer to make that decision so we were surprised and unhappy. It is his decision, of course, and he really feels like he has been receiving promptings that this is what he should do. So we will hope for the best. Maybe there are reasons for him not to go back that we can't see right now.

Monday (the 21st): Okay, so far this has been a lot longer than I anticipated but I think the rest of the week was a lot more routine! Monday was mostly a normal day. It was sunny and warm, but it was supposed to rain on Tuesday again so I took advantage of the chance to mow the lawn while I could. I had only mowed part of the back lawn, though, when the lawn mower battery died. Frank had been using the weed eater to edge both the front and back lawns and he was done so he gave me the battery from the weed eater to put in the lawn mower. I was worried that the second battery might die also and I felt it was more important for the front lawn to get mowed so I left the back lawn partly mowed and moved to the front. I was almost done with the front lawn when that battery died too!! So we borrowed one of the neighbor's lawn mowers to finish the front. I figured I would just have to wait for another day to finish the back lawn but shortly before it got dark I noticed that the batteries had finished charging so I quickly finished mowing the back lawn too. On Monday Frank and I also went to Lowe's and finally got the contract signed to get the carpet put in the office downstairs. They had called and given us a new quote that was $200 more than the first one, but Frank talked to them and he got it all straightened out and they charged us the original amount that they had quoted. The carpet has been ordered and they are supposed to install it after it arrives, in a couple of weeks.

Tuesday (the 22nd): I can't think of anything out of the ordinary about Tuesday. I did get to talk to Mom on the phone for quite a while, which was nice! Seth and I did not have den meetings because we only have 3 den meetings each month and we have already had our 3 meetings for May. We were supposed to have Pack Meeting this week but the Cub Master is out of town so we had to cancel that. It rained again on Tuesday, sometimes quite hard.

Wednesday (the 23rd): I woke up around 3:00 am and my stomach was hurting. I finally went back to sleep after over an hour, but when I woke up again my stomach still hurt. It wasn't really bad, and I could still eat (although I didn't have much appetite) but I just didn't feel very well all day. I decided to stay home from the religion class. By late afternoon I also started getting a headache, which got worse into the evening. I was supposed to be going to a Arbonne party that evening (skin care products) but I had to stay home. Frank made dinner for me and he took Seth to the 11 year old scout meeting and generally just helped out so I was able to lie down all evening, which I appreciated. I think I may have had a slight fever too because I was cold. I did get to talk to Tanner while I was lying down, which was nice. Jared was gone that evening also--he worked at the Frederick Keys and afterwards he and Jessie went out to get some dinner. I was going to work on finishing up assessments with Seth that evening but that didn't get done, unfortunately.

Thursday (the 24th): I had a very slight headache and stomach ache in the morning, but I felt much better than the night before and as the day went on I improved so that by evening I felt mostly back to normal. Meanwhile, Frank started having the same symptoms I had so he was the one who was lying down all evening. He was supposed to go on splits with the missionaries, but he had to cancel that. I had a busy day doing all the normal things, plus I did some sewing. I purchased a blouse a month or two ago online and when it came I really liked it but it was too long. I could tell it would look a whole lot better if it were about 4 inches shorter, so I decided to try cutting it shorter and re-hemming it. I was a little nervous about it, but I watched a few videos online that had some helpful tips and I was able to successfully shorten and re-hem the blouse. I was up a little bit late finishing it, but I was pleased that I got it done. Jared spent the evening with Jessie's family--they went to a concert that one of Jessie's sisters was participating in at her high school. On Thursday the sink hole in the parking lot was also fixed. They determined that it was caused by a pipe below ground that was leaking, and it was the city's responsibility to get it fixed. They came out and assessed the situation on Tuesday and fixed the pipe and poured concrete in the hole on Wednesday. On Thursday they pulled up the asphalt around the hole and re-paved the area. I got a few pictures of them pulling up the asphalt:

Friday (the 25th):  Today I went to the eye doctor. I haven't had a check up in a couple of years and I decided I'd better get that done before we don't have insurance anymore. I'm getting new lenses for my glasses but I love the frames I have so I'm having the new lenses put in my old frames. That means that I won't have my glasses for 2 weeks, though, which is not going to be easy. I will be getting a new prescription for contact lenses also. I have a pair to try out and I'll be going back in about a week. So far, I like the new pair. I can see better close up when I have them on. Besides that, I have just been doing the usual Friday things (mostly updating the budget). Frank went in to work for part of the day and then picked Sam up and brought him back here with him (he's staying here for the weekend). Frank is feeling better today, by the way. Like me yesterday, he doesn't feel great but he feels a lot better than he did yesterday.

Jared has not worked as much this week as last week, partly because there aren't any baseball games this weekend (the Keys have away games until later next week) and partly because he wasn't feeling great so he called in sick on Monday and Tuesday at Chick fil a. I think he was more tired than sick, because he wasn't sleeping very well. He did work at Chick fil a on Wednesday and today. He worked at the Keys on Monday and Wednesday evenings and since he wasn't scheduled to work at Chick fil a on Thursday, he let them know at the Keys that he was available to work. They had a day game, so he worked at the Keys from 9:00 until nearly 3:00 that day. It keeps me busy getting him to work and back. I let him drive my car whenever possible, but usually I need my car so that I can get Seth to school and back.

Seth has had kind of  a rough week. He has had a number of meltdowns and really been quite unreasonable about some things. I've had a really difficult time being patient with him this week, too. I hope we do better this coming week. In general, between worries about Jared and worries about the job situation, things are just more tense around here right now and I think that Seth is picking up on that, which isn't helping him. And since we are feeling more tense, it is harder to be patient with him when he is melting down. Kind of a vicious cycle. We'd appreciate prayers on our behalf!

I have also started having problems with allergies this week. Up until now, I have been fine but this week my nose started running a little, I have occasional sneezing fits, and last night my eyes started itching too. Wonderful! I do take allergy medication and usually that helps. I trade off between three different over the counter medications and I switch each month. That has been working pretty well for the last several years. I will be switching to a different medication in a week and I'm hoping that will help.

I did a little bit of crocheting this week but I haven't made much progress on the afghan I started. Actually, I ended up undoing most of what I did already because I made a mistake somewhere. I'm doing a new stitch that I've never done before so there's a learning curve involved. It's not really that hard, but it does involve a lot of counting and somewhere I got off on my counting. I'm hoping I will get the hang of it soon and start making some progress.

This week's post has turned out to be longer than I anticipated. I guess there was more going on than I thought! We're looking forward to this holiday weekend and celebrating Seth's birthday. It's hard to believe he's almost 11! Last year at this time, Frank & I were getting ready to go on a cruise. That was a lot of fun--I'm glad that we got to do that! We would like to do that again someday. :)

Weekly Review May 18 '18

I could title this post "Flash Floods and Sink Holes". Read on to find out why.

You know it's an unusual weather week when the city you live in gets mentioned by name on the Weather Channel at least twice. Let's go back to Friday first, though.

Friday (11th): There's not a lot to say about Friday but I did mow the lawn after I picked Seth up from school and that is noteworthy because there's no telling when I'll be able to do that again. The lawn desperately needs to be mowed again, but it is much too soggy to even think about mowing. Looking ahead, we still have rain forecast for several days so the lawn is going to have to wait.

Last Thursday (or thereabouts; I can't remember the exact day anymore) a hole appeared in one of the parking spots in front of our row of townhomes. I thought it was a pothole when I first saw it, but on closer inspection, it turned out to be a sinkhole. Here's some pictures:

It's at least 3-4 feet deep. This has made all of us pretty nervous about parking our cars out front, especially in the spots on either side of the spot with the sinkhole. There have been numerous calls made to the HOA and Frank spoke to someone from there on Monday, and that person said a contractor would be out to evaluate what needed to be done to fix it either Monday or Tuesday, but I haven't seen anyone out there inspecting it yet (I mean, I could have missed that since I don't sit in my house looking out the front window all day, but no one has showed up to fix it yet either.) I'm not sure if the weather has slowed down whoever was supposed to be fixing it. In the meantime, we are one parking space short in a lot that is already not big enough and we are all hoping we don't go outside some morning to discover all our cars fallen into a larger sinkhole! But at least there isn't a volcano erupting in our neighborhood, so all in all we can't complain too much.

Saturday (12th): This day was super busy. Seth had swimming lessons as usual in the morning. After that, Seth, Jared, Jessie and I went on a hike. We went to a place called Sugarloaf Mountain (okay, "mountain" is used in the very broad sense in these parts), which is about 20 minutes south of Frederick. It was a nice hike; not too strenuous and a pretty view at the top. Seth had already done this hike on a field trip in February (part of a program called "outdoor school") and he had asked to go back so that's why we picked this particular hike. Seth was very excited to go back and kept telling us things he learned on the first hike. (I think he should consider being a tour guide as a profession.) Here are some pictures we took:

After we took those pictures, we asked Seth if we were at the summit, and he said "no". He had been telling us that when his class went on the hike, only 1 or 2 people could be on the summit at one time because it was so small and he hadn't had the chance to go up on the summit. So after asking him if we were at the summit, he said "it's over here". Then he led us over to a large rock and said "here it is! This is actually the highest point on the mountain." I had to laugh about that--here I thought we were going to have to hike some more but it was just a rock! So Seth got to sit on the "summit":

(There's my proof that Jared and Jessie were there too.)

He sat on the summit while we ate the lunches we had packed to bring along, and then we hiked back down to the bottom of the mountain. It was a nice day to be outside (sunny and not too hot) and I'm glad we went. Seth really enjoyed hiking and I think we are going to need to do some more hikes because he doesn't usually enjoy physical activity. He usually complains if we have to walk very far but on the hike he kept getting ahead of us.

After getting back from the hike, Jared and Jessie both had to go to work. (Frederick Keys) The rest of us went to a ward activity that evening, where we enjoyed various family history themed activities.

Sunday (13th): Mother's Day! I had a nice restful morning; we didn't have choir practice and Frank didn't have any meetings. I received flowers and chocolates and a few days later in the mail I got a case and a tuner for my ukulele (or maybe I should say the ukulele Jared is letting me use, since it really isn't mine).

(The small package is a glass candle holder that Seth "made" for me at school. I put that in quotes because he was supposed to decorate it, but he "ran out of time".)

At church the men & YW helped in Primary the last hour so that all the women could come to RS and at the end of the lesson they had us go to the gym for treats and visiting. They had fruit with a chocolate fountain, vegetables with dip, and brownies. It was really yummy! They also took a group photo of us--Frank was the photographer and he used his drone to take the picture.

Monday (14th): This day was just an average day except that we booked our flights for Utah. We are happy to be coming to the reunion and looking forward to seeing you all again! 

Tuesday (15th): This was mostly a normal day also, until evening when the fun began. When we were driving over to the church for Cub Scouts, I thought the sky looked fairly ominous. I took this picture from the parking lot in front of our house:

Luckily, we made it to the church before the storm hit (it was only sprinkling a little bit). Shortly after we started our den meetings, the storm arrived and we got a torrential downpour with 1 inch hail stones. I could tell it was raining hard and that it was hailing (we could hear the hail hitting the roof) but I didn't really think too much about it because I was busy doing the stuff we had planned to do for den meeting. It's not unusual for us to get heavy rainstorms, although decent sized hail is not so common. At home, Frank tried getting some photos of the storm.

Before:

During:

Yes, those white balls are hail stones coming down!

Look how dark it is, compared to the photo taken a short time earlier (above).

As we were finishing up den meetings, we started hearing lots of sirens and our phones started getting alerts for flash flood warnings. By then it wasn't raining nearly so hard so I didn't really think getting home would be a big deal but I was wrong about that. We only live about 5 minutes from the church but it took me about a half hour to get home because there was some major flooding on Maryland 355 and on Schifferstadt Boulevard, which are the two main roads I usually take to get home. On Maryland 355, I actually drove through a flooded area (not really realizing how bad it was until I was in it). About that time, Frank called so I had Seth talk to him and he told us I was going to have to find another way home because the intersection of Maryland 355 and Schifferstadt Boulevard was closed. I was actually starting to realize that when he called because I could see up the road that there were fire trucks with their lights on blocking the road. All the traffic on the road was trying to turn around and it was kind of crazy. So then I had to drive back through the flooded area to get out of there! Thankfully, we got through that safely and I found another route home. Even then, we saw lots of emergency vehicles out although we didn't run into any more flooded areas. I found out later (that evening and the next day) that there was a lot of flooding in downtown Frederick and even on Market Street, just a mile or so from our house. Remember the blocked intersection? They had to rescue a number of people from cars caught in flood waters at that intersection. I hear there were over 50 water rescues throughout Frederick County that night. Here are a few pictures from the news media:

This picture reminds me of the area that we had to drive through.

This picture of a girl being rescued from a car was taken at the intersection of Maryland 355 and Schifferstadt Boulevard.

I think this picture may have been taken at the same intersection.

Here are a few pictures taken in downtown Frederick:

That last picture is of Baker Park, which is only a few blocks from Seth's school. His school actually did get some flooding in a basement classroom and in their multi purpose room, which is also in the basement. Apparently they were able to get it all cleaned up in time for school, although someone was up all night making sure that happened. (Several someones, I think.)

I heard that we got up to 6 inches of rain in less than two hours, which explains all the flash floods. The Monocacy River (behind our house) is high, but it actually isn't even out of its banks. At least not yet, although that may change since it is still raining. (Just not raining hard, thankfully.)

Meanwhile, Jared and Jessie were in Brunswick that evening and Jessie was supposed to be bringing Jared home but they decided they'd better stay put for a while when they heard how bad the roads were. Frank decided it would be better for him to go down there and pick up Jared since he's a much more experienced driver than Jessie is. He got there and back safely, but the traffic was terrible and he saw more flooding (didn't drive through any flooding though) and it took a long time so they got home pretty late.

Wednesday (16th): It rained off and on all day, but not very hard. I went to the religion class and did mostly the usual things. That evening I took Seth to an 11 year old scout meeting that one of the other ward's was having. He will be 11 in couple of weeks and at the beginning of June there is an 11 year old scout camp out for the stake. However, Seth will be the only 11 year old in our ward at the time of the camp out and for the camp out they are supposed to be in a patrol and do a skit together, plan their meals together, etc. So I contacted the guy in charge of the camp out and he said he is the 11 year old scout leader in his ward and invited Seth to join their ward's patrol. Since they are starting to prepare for the camp out at their meetings now, he invited Seth to come to their meetings too. So that's what we did. Getting to the church proved to be another adventure, though. In anticipation for more flooding (which did happen later, I think) they had closed off Schifferstadt Boulevard from near our house all the way down to Maryland 355,which was also closed for a large stretch. Because of the road being closed, the traffic was all snarled up and after attempting to go a couple of different routes I kept running into more stand still traffic. I did finally find a way to get to the church, after having to back track and drive the opposite direction from the church for a while. It was crazy!! Seth seemed to enjoy the meeting and there was only one boy from the other ward there (2 didn't make it that evening) so I think the leader was glad to have another boy show up!

Thursday (17th): Again, raining off and on all day, sometimes heavy. Because of all the previous flooding and more rain in the forecast, the mayor of Frederick declared a state of emergency. We are also supposed to try not to use water for anything nonessential, like washing dishes or clothes. (Something about the water treatment plant being inundated.)  For some reason, I didn't hear about that until after I did the laundry--oops!! I usually get email notices with any emergency notices so I don't know why I'm not getting them anymore. It was supposed to rain hard again last night so they were anticipating a lot more flooding. Because of that, the RS activity we had that evening was cancelled. In addition, the school system cancelled all afternoon & evening activities and they also decided to have a 2 hour delayed opening this morning. As it turned out, that part of the storm mostly missed us I think so we didn't get really heavy rain (which was a blessing!) It has still been raining off and on all day today and we are supposed to get 3-5 more inches of rain by tomorrow night, so we may have more trouble with flooding before this is over. Anyway, on Thursday I spent a good part of the day doing family history stuff and reading about the temple. I have a book I'm reading about temple symbols and the chapter I read yesterday was really enlightening. I just got a lot of insights and thought about some things I had never thought about before while I was reading it--that was cool! Jared only had to work from 6:00 - 9:00 am (he worked 6:00 am to 2:00 pm Monday through Friday) and Jessie had the day off so they went to a movie in the afternoon and pretty much were gone until late last night.

Friday (18th): Jared was supposed to work at 6 this morning, but he felt sick to his stomach so he called in sick. He was supposed to work tonight at the Frederick Keys, but the game got cancelled. Not a surprise--I'm guessing the field is probably flooded. He's supposed to work tomorrow too; we'll see if that game gets cancelled too. He didn't have to work at the Keys earlier this week because they had away games. Seth enjoyed having two extra hours at home this morning. Tonight there is a Fathers / Sons campout that Frank and Seth were going to go to (just for the evening; Frank can't really camp anymore) but I think they have decided not to go to that since we are supposed to have heavy rain / thunderstorms tonight. Doesn't sound very fun to me. Frank has a meeting with HR today at work to get details about severance and to sign some paperwork. Last Friday they told him a few details about severance--he will get 1 week of pay for each year he has worked at Marriott, so that means he gets 6 weeks pay. He also gets paid for any vacation days he hasn't used (I think that is about another week.) Also, while he is receiving severance pay he will remain on the payroll and will still be eligible for health insurance benefits, which is helpful. After that, we will have the option to continue coverage with Cobra (although of course that's super expensive). Frank has talked to a number of people who are interested in getting his resume so he is working on that. He may still interview for at least one position at Marriott as well. Getting laid off again has been a blow to his self esteem and he is not feeling really happy right now. He has had trouble sleeping, too. So please remember him in your prayers! It's a lot harder on him than it is on me.

Besides all that, I have continued to practice the ukulele. I haven't had a class in a while because the mom of the sister in charge of the group has been having major health issues and has been in the hospital. I'm not sure when we are going to meet again, but in the meantime I can always use more practice! I started making a new afghan this week but I haven't made a lot of progress on that yet. I did some shopping for Seth's birthday. I started a family history project and got pretty involved with that, too. So I am keeping pretty busy. The carpet project for the basement bedroom is at a standstill because Lowe's can't seem to figure out how to get us a quote. They said they had one ready so Frank went in to sign the contract last night and then the guy said "we need to rework this quote". I don't know what the problem is. Hopefully they will get it figured out soon. We are hoping that in another day or two we will see some sunshine again! We are just thankful that our house hasn't flooded because many other people have not been so lucky. Hopefully this coming week will be a lot less eventful.

Weekly Review May 11 '18

There was not a lot (out of the ordinary) going on this week so maybe this post will be short.

Saturday: It was a typical busy Saturday. Seth had swimming in the morning as usual. One new thing, though...he was wearing a new swimsuit! He was outgrowing the old one.

After we got home from swimming, he took a shower as usual and then he did some homework, we did a few assessments, and we worked on Cub Scouts (which involved planning a hike that we are going to go on tomorrow). After that I practiced ukulele, cleaned the kitchen floor, and Frank and I did some cleaning downstairs in his office and in the downstairs bedroom, which also involved a fun & exciting trip to the county landfill. ;) Jared went with the missionaries to teach a lesson, which of course got cancelled so they visited some other people instead.

Sunday: We don't have church meetings until 1:00 so most Sundays I spend the morning reading scriptures and reading the material for the lessons that I will participate in that day. I often do some indexing as well. I have come to really enjoy these quiet, unrushed mornings! Frank had ward council and correlation meeting with the missionaries and Jared met with our bishop to discuss his current plans for the summer. Jared attended the YSA Sacrament Meeting and afterwards they had a "Break the Fast" potluck dinner which he attended also.

Monday: A guy came in the morning to measure the downstairs bedroom for the carpet. We are still waiting to get a quote from them, though. Seth's school was having events for teacher appreciation week and I signed up to help with some of that. I took in some clementines for a snack table they had for the teachers that day and stayed for a little while to help set up. The rest of the day while Seth was at school was pretty normal with the usual chores and I made some brownies for family night treat too. My friend who has been in the hospital a lot lately was released from the hospital that day but not until later so I picked her kids up from school again. I actually picked them up every day this week except for yesterday. I did a few extra days to give her more recuperation time and today I am picking them up too because she had an event she needed to attend. Today I am taking them to another ward member's house to play after I pick them up, though. Anyway, picking up the kids was a little complicated because Seth had an orthodontist appointment right after school (I actually had to pick them all up a little early). It all worked out, though. They just came with us to the appointment. I brought snacks for everybody and they have puzzles, books, and a television showing cartoons in the waiting room at the orthodontist's office so everybody kept pretty happy. The orthodontist decided to re-evaluate Seth's teeth again in about 4 months. He has 10 loose teeth that need to come out and he is hoping most of them will come out on their own rather than needing to be pulled. (I hope so too!)

Tuesday: I'm not remembering much about Tuesday so it must have been a pretty regular day. For den meeting that night we all met together and went on a hike. I think everyone had a good time.

(We stopped for a few minutes at a little "tot lot" on our way back to the church.)

Not long after we got home from Cub Scouts, I got the email from the church about the decision to not charter any more Cub Scout packs or Boy Scout troops after December 2019. I was surprised! Not really surprised about the decision because I thought that was inevitable, but surprised about the timing. I thought it would happen much farther in the future. I feel a little bit sad about it but I know it was an inspired decision and that the new program will be wonderful. I was surprised that when I told Seth he was sad about it, too. I didn't think he cared that much. I told him he could still join another Boy Scout troop, but he said "I want to do Boy Scouts with my friends" (in the ward). I guess we'll just see what happens, but realistically it's more likely that he won't continue with Boys Scouts than that he will. If he really wants to continue, though, I would be willing to support him in doing that. I do think it is a good organization that provided some great learning and growing experiences for my boys, and I respect that.

Wednesday: I didn't have the religion class because the teacher was out of town but it was still a busy day. I helped clean up the teacher appreciation breakfast at Seth's school. I ended up picking Jessie (Jared's girlfriend) up from work (long story). We had the missionaries over for dinner that evening and afterwards I had book chat. We discussed the book Inside Out & Back Again (very good book). Now we are going to read a book called 7 Women and the Secret of Their Greatness. Some of the women featured in the book are Joan of Arc, Corrie ten Boom, Rosa Parks, and Mother Teresa. So far I have only read the introduction, but the introduction was fantastic. The author basically says that one of the main reasons these women are great is not because they were like men but because they did the things that women are so uniquely good at doing, that they admirably used the unique traits that God has given to women. And that that's how it should be--women shouldn't want to be like men because they are great the way they are. I'm not putting it as well as he did, but anyway, I loved that idea.

On Wednesday we also found out that Frank had not been chosen for any of the positions that he interviewed for, so it looks like he will definitely be laid off on June 1st. He will be getting more information about severance today. He did find a couple more positions that he thinks he is qualified for and he already applied for one of them yesterday so there is a slight possibility he will still not get laid off, but we're not feeling incredibly hopeful at this point. Therefore, he is getting his resume out to some other people he knows who work in the same field and in general starting the search for a new job. Obviously, we aren't thrilled about any of this but we're hoping he'll find something new soon. All of his job changes in the past have turned out to be huge blessings in disguise and I think in the end things will work out somehow.

Thursday: Mostly a usual busy day. I had all the regular Thursday chores, and I also purchased some yarn to make an afghan. I did some more assessments with Seth and we are mostly done with those--I just have to go back and do a couple of things that we skipped. I'm eager to move forward with figuring out what we need to do to treat him now.

Friday: Today I updated the budget and that's mostly all I've done so far (It's still fairly early in the day.) Frank had a follow up doctor appointment for his diabetes and that went great. His A1C1 is down to 5.2 (it was at 9.8 when he was diagnosed), which is considered normal. (Pre-diabietc is 6.0 and diabetes is 6.5 or above.) He has lost 25-30 pounds since being diagnosed also. The doctor said "That is fantastic!! What are you doing? Keep doing it!!" He says Frank is in the 5% of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who actually do what they need to do to keep their blood sugar under control. So I am proud of him for being so disciplined and working so hard at it. Now he gets to decrease the dosage of the medicine he is taking for his blood sugar. We'll see how that goes.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else to report. Jared has continued to work a lot. He has worked 8 hour shifts at Chick-fil-a every day this week. He also worked at the Frederick Keys stadium on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings and he will work there again tomorrow afternoon. For his one evening off (Wednesday) he went to Jessie's house, so as I predicted, we aren't seeing much of him but that is okay. It's good for him to be busy and to be saving money.

Seth gets out of school 2 hours early today which means I have to pick him up soon so I'd better post this and go eat some lunch. 

Weekly Review May 4 '18

It is hard to believe another week has gone by already. It seems that spring in Maryland has finally arrived. As a matter of fact, some days felt more like summer. The trees are in full bloom and my car is coated in pollen. I'm just happy to have some beautiful days. A couple of iris bloomed in my yard this week too:

I had a few daffodils come up earlier this spring too but sadly, none of my tulips ever appeared. It took quite a bit of time and effort (and I hurt my back too) to plant all those tulip bulbs the fall before last and they only bloomed one year! I think some ground hogs and / or squirrels must have dug up the bulbs and eaten them. I am really bummed about that. I guess I will have to plant some more this fall. I love tulips!

Here's some of the things we did this week.

Saturday: Our stake RS had a "Morningside" which meant a breakfast and inspirational speaker. The food was really yummy and the speaker was great. I can't remember her last name but her first name is Olga and she joined the church in Czechoslovakia back before it became the Czech Republic. You can actually read some of her story in the book "Daughters in My Kingdom". Anyway, she lives in Maryland now and she came to speak for us. She is also a yoga instructor (she says her classes are called "Yoga with Olga"--cute!) and she did a little bit of yoga with us before speaking, specifically focusing on things that help with depression and anxiety. Her talk was very uplifting and I enjoyed it a lot. I invited my friend Renata to come and she came, so that was nice too. Frank took Seth to swimming and Jared mowed the lawn while I was at the Morningside. After I got home, the rest of the day was busy too. Seth and I made chocolate chip cookie bars to share with some friends and his friend Krish came over to play for the afternoon. Frank and Jared went to see the movie Infinity War. I cleaned the kitchen floor, did some Cub Scout planning, and sent a bunch of photos to a girl in our ward who is putting together a slide show to commemorate our ward's 20th anniversary. (The photos were from past ward / Primary / Cub Scout activities). Our ward will be 20 years old this summer and we have been here for a little over 18 of those years. Sadly, we are going to miss the actual ward activity and other events planned for the commemoration because it is the same week of our family reunion. (I would rather be at the family reunion, of course, just wish the two events didn't conflict.)

Sunday: I didn't have choir practice because the director was out of town so it was an even more relaxing Sunday than usual. I'm enjoying it while it lasts because a new round of Self Reliance groups is going to start at the end of May and I will probably be helping with that again.

Monday: Mostly the ordinary stuff, but I did a few extra things like meal planning and cleaning the tub & shower (which are usually Tuesday chores) because I wanted to do temple / family history stuff on Tuesday. We had family night too.

Tuesday: I enjoyed spending a couple of hours reading about the temple, doing indexing, and doing some family history. Snickers went to the groomer, I had den meeting and Cub Committee meeting in the evening, and Frank met with the bishop. (He still meets with the bishop monthly, but now as ward mission leader instead of as the EQ president.)

Wednesday: I went to religion class as usual. I also weeded the flower beds in the front and back yards. Frank and I went to the store that evening to look at carpet tiles / other flooring options. We decided to have carpet installed in the downstairs bedroom (soon to be office) instead of putting in carpet tiles because it will help keep the room a little bit warmer.  (You can't put carpet pad under carpet tiles, and the floor down there is concrete.) We picked out the carpet we want and they will be coming early next week to measure the room. It will probably be a few more weeks after that before they actually install the carpet. In the meantime, we are going to work on going through Frank's office to get rid of a lot of stuff. On Wednesday I also got an interesting series of emails from the school system / Seth's school. Here is the first one I got:

Seth's school is Monocacy Valley Montessori, North Frederick Elementary is the school he would have gone to if he wasn't at the charter school, and Gov. TJ High is the high school all the older boys attended (1 mile from our house). TJ Middle is just down the street from our house. I got this email right after I came inside from all the weeding. I was glad I didn't meet any bears while I was outside!

The next email came from the principal of Seth's school:

It was accompanied by this photo:

When dismissal time got closer, I got the first email below from the school system and the other 2 emails from Seth's school:

I just got a kick out of "CANCELED due to bears" in that last email! As it turned out, there was only one bear that was sighted in several different locations as he moved around. There were some guys from the Department of Natural Resources who were chasing the bear for a while but after they determined he was a young bear who wasn't aggressive, they decided to just observe him and wait for him to find his way out of the urban area on his own, which I guess eventually he did.

Thursday: On Thursday I did all of the normal things except I DIDN'T do the laundry because Frank discovered that the washing machine wasn't working during the first batch I put in. He did some online research and determined what the problem was and that the part to fix it would be very expensive. And since the washing machine was 21 years old, we went shopping for a new washing machine that afternoon instead. Can't really complain too much about it quitting after that many years! We definitely got our money's worth. Here's the old one:

And here's the new one:

It's bigger than the old one. We didn't get one of those fancy front loading kinds that most people get now because I actually prefer the top loading kind. (Plus the fancy front loading kinds cost a lot more.)

On Thursday I also did some assessments with Seth and got a couple of craft books (one crochet book and one quilt book) because I am contemplating starting another project. I also got to talk to Tanner for a while and got caught up on his life. He just moved to a new apartment and he will be starting a new full time job at BYU next week, working for Juan. He is planning to keep working at BYU catering on Saturdays as well.

Friday: Our new washing machine was delivered this morning so we have been doing laundry today. I got the budget updated and mowed the lawn. Seth went to play with the carpool boys after school. Frank and I went to Costco to get some chicken and then went to Cafe Rio to get some dinner and when we were there we ran into some missionaries so we bought their dinners too. It's fun to do stuff like that! Jared went to Jessie's house this evening to have dinner with them and to watch a movie with them.

Besides all that, I should mention that Jared worked 8 hour shifts at Chick-fil-a every day (Monday through Friday) except for Wednesday. He also started a new job working at a food stand at the Frederick Keys stadium (local minor league baseball team). He just does that in the evenings and on weekends. He worked that job on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this week. Jared also went to Institute class on Thursday evening, which is taught by the same man who teaches the religion class I go to. Jessie just got back from Utah yesterday so I expect we will not be seeing as much of Jared for the rest of the summer!

My friend who had gall bladder surgery at the end of March has had more complications from her surgery and ended up back in the hospital this whole week. I can't imagine how discouraging that must be for her! We are all praying that she will get better soon and stay better. In the meantime, I picked her kids up from school every day this week except for Wednesday, because one of them was sick that day so their dad stayed home with them. On Tuesday we went over to the park for a while.

It was a nice day, but one of the hottest we've had so far and walking back from the park I got really tired.

I have been practicing ukulele most days too, and Seth and I are still slowly making our way through The Mark of Athena. We are enjoying it, but haven't had a lot of time to read it. I was able to start exercising this week again although my back gives me twinges sometimes--reminding me that I need to be careful! Frank and I both exercised every day except today, because our exercise clothes were still sitting in baskets needing to be washed this morning.

We were hoping to hear this week whether or not Frank has a new position with Marriott, but we are still waiting. Hopefully next week we will find that out. All the waiting and not knowing is just not fun. The odds for the team he works on aren't so good. There are 11 people on his team, and so far 2 of them know they got a new position and 8 of them know that they didn't. Frank is the only one who is still waiting, but at least that means maybe he will get a job. It is encouraging, at least, that they asked him to interview for some new positions. Hopefully by next week we will know one way or another.

That is everything I can think of to report on this week.