Weekly Review July 20 '18

I tried to get this post written before we left for Utah, but I ran out of time and now it is two weeks later! That means this post will not be very detailed, but I imagine most of you will be happy about that. I'm going to skip the daily rundown and just talk about what we did throughout the week. It was a very busy week as we were getting ready for our trip.

Seth had his last swimming lesson for a while on Saturday (the 14th). We didn't sign him up for the next session since we were going to be gone for a few weeks (and you can only make up one lesson). The next session doesn't start until the beginning of September, so we will have a break from swimming for a while. We'd like him to continue lessons but we'll have to see what the job situation is by the time September rolls around. We might have to take a longer break than we intended.

My week was dominated by working on pin maps, Cub Scouts, preparing for the family reunion and getting ready for our trip. We were taking care of cats again too. We let the cats out Saturday evening and then let them in and out again on Monday and Wednesday. I got a lot done on the pin maps but I will have some work to do when we get back. Seth has continued to help me with them. For Cub Scouts, I printed up all the Day Camp records and delivered them to the member of the stake Primary presidency who is in charge of the camp on Sunday. I also prepared for our regular Tuesday den meeting. For den meeting, we did some cooking. The boys chose to make rice krispy treats. It was fun, but a little crazy.

For the family reunion preparations, I printed up photos of Mom, her parents, and her grandparents to be used on the ofrenda. I was also on the food committee and realized that although we had decided what we wanted to make for all the meals, we hadn't really gone past that in our preparations so I spent a lot of time on Wednesday communicating with the rest of the committee and typing up a list of our menus and what ingredients we would need to buy for each meal. I started making a master shopping list while I was on the plane on Friday.

As far as preparation for our trip went, we had to pack, of course, but there were many other things to do as well. I realized we were almost out of dog food so I called the vet to order some more and Frank picked it up. We have one of our neighbors taking care of Snickers while we are gone, so he came over so we could go over the things he needed to do (he's done it before, so it was just a review). My car needed to be inspected before we left so Frank took my car to get an oil change and to the inspection also. I had to follow up with the pharmacy to get Seth's prescription filled because I had called in the refill the previous week but it hadn't been filled yet. As usual, they didn't have enough pills to fill his prescription and they had to order more which fortunately got done before we left since we were almost out. We had to return library books and go to the bank and pay bills that would be due while we were gone. Of course, I still had all the regular chores to do (like laundry and cleaning although I did NOT have to plan meals for the next week, which was nice for a change) so it was a very busy week.

I didn't have my religion class on Wednesday because the teacher was out of town. It's just as well, since I wouldn't have had time to go. I did find the time to go to lunch with my friend Rebekah on Tuesday and on Wednesday evening we had book chat. It was the birthday of one of the book chat ladies, so one of the other ladies made a cake for the snack. Check out this beauty!:

It tasted delicious, too. We discussed Phantom of the Opera. Now we are reading a book called A Fall of Marigolds.

Other things I did were to pick up some boxes and deliver them to a friend in the ward who is moving. She and her parents just bought a new house (but will still be in our ward; we're happy about that). Her mom was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and her dad is having back surgery. They've been talking about moving to a house with one level living for quite a while, I guess, but the increased health problems motivated them to finally make the change. They needed help with cleaning during the week and I didn't have time to do that but the RS president remembered that another member of the ward who lives near us had some boxes to give to the moving family but didn't have time to deliver them so she asked me if I could do that instead of helping with the cleaning. We had some boxes they could use too, so that worked out perfectly.

Seth and I finished reading the last Percy Jackson book. We really enjoyed that series. I let Seth pick out the next book we are going to read and he chose Holes. I'm sure we will enjoy it (great book!) but we haven't had a chance to start it yet.

The weather in Maryland has been quite dry for most of July, with only a few thunderstorms now and again. We did get a thunderstorm on Tuesday after den meeting. I tried to take some pictures although they never turn out very well. The sky looked pretty threatening when the storm was coming in:

The sun was setting while the rain poured down so the sky looked pink, which was cool:

It's been so dry that when I mowed the lawn on Saturday I really couldn't tell much difference between what I had mowed and what I hadn't. (I probably didn't need to mow it, actually.) I didn't mow it again before we left but it really hadn't grown much. It started raining the day after we left Maryland and it has been raining nearly every day since, with lots of flooding, so the lawn will probably look like a jungle by the time we get home!

Our HOA had set up sidewalk, curb, and gutter repairs to be done and that was in progress all week. All the cars had to be removed from the parking lots by 7:00 am every day and couldn't be returned to the lots until evening. On Monday morning Seth and I went over to let in the cats and we took these pictures:

(Cars parked all the way down the street)

(More cars parked on the street)

The parking lot in front of our house, with only one car left.

It was kind of inconvenient to have to do that, of course, but it didn't turn out to be as bad as we had anticipated. We had some grocery shopping to do that day so we pulled into the parking lot to drop off groceries. After unloading, Frank went back out to move the car back down the street. One of the workers stopped him and said that they weren't going to get to our part of the court until at least Wednesday, so he didn't need to move the car. It turns out they didn't get to our part of the court until Thursday. On Friday morning Frank asked one of the workers if we could park our car in the lot so we could load it up for our trip and he said we wouldn't be in the way at all if we just left the car there, so we didn't have to move it at all. They are going to be repainting lines in the parking lot sometime after we get back (would be nice if they would do that while we're gone!) so we will be moving our cars down the street again soon.

Jared worked every day at Chick fil a except for Thursday. He was supposed to work Thurday, too, but he got sick in the night so he didn't go to work that day. He was supposed to work at the Keys that night too. (He worked at the Keys on Tuesday night, though.) Whatever he had, it was thankfully very short lived and he was fine for our flight on Friday.

Friday was a long day. The morning was filled with last minute things before we had to get out the door. We had an uneventful flight except that we were delayed about 45 minutes--first because the plane was late getting in and second because some of the luggage that was supposed to go our flight got mislaid and had to be found. We finally got on our way and I slept a little bit, but not very much. When we got to Utah, we got our luggage and picked up our rental car in record time but we were still feeling rushed because we were going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day Concert that evening. We still needed to eat dinner and change into nicer clothes. We met Tanner & Darlee (who were also going to the concert) as well as Scott at the food court at the City Center Mall. Within 5 minutes of getting to the food court, we ran into 2 different families from our stake back home in Maryland! What are the chances??! Getting dinner took a lot longer than we had anticipated (long lines) so in the end I only had time to eat about half of my dinner and we did not have time to go back to the car to retrieve our nicer clothes. That was okay, though--a lot of other people were dressed like us and no one glared at us for not being dressed nicer! We met Amy & her kids as well as Mom at the Conference Center for the concert. (Seth and Jared didn't go to the concert--they went with Scott to his house to hang out.)

We got great seats, and while I was sitting there looking at the program I noticed that the concert didn't start until 8:00! I thought it started at 7:30 and we had to be in our seats at 7:00. So we actually had 30 minutes longer than we thought we did. Oh, well! The concert was amazing. Just really great! They did show tunes from musicals like Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and Sound of Music. For the last song, they sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" and it was very moving. I'm so glad we went, even though it was hectic getting there.

After the concert I took these pictures while we were walking back to the car:

We stopped at Scott's house to pick up Jared & Seth, so by the time we got to Amy's house and got to bed it was very late, close to midnight. In Maryland time, that was 2:00 am, so we had been up about 20 hours. Long day, but worth it!

That's everything for the week of July 20th. Lots more adventures to come next week!

Weekly Review July 13 '18

Here is the rundown of what we did this week:

Saturday (7th): Jared ended up working at Chick fil a--when he went in on Friday they asked him if he could work the next day, so he did. I took Seth to take care of the cats and then to swimming while Frank went to help with a baptism. Three children of a sister in our ward got baptized. I cleaned the kitchen floor, mowed the lawn, and finished most of the work on the records for day camp. The weather was really nice--temperatures dropped down to the 80's and the humidity was low too so that evening we took Seth with us on a walk (Snickers came too) and we stopped at a park to play catch for a while.

Sunday (8th): I honestly can't remember what we did besides go to church, of course. Jessie was going to come over for dinner but she wasn't feeling well so she didn't come. Frank wasn't feeling that well either, but he went to all his regular meetings plus an extra one in the evening for all the members of the ward council (they were talking about security in the building--being prepared for any problems).

I took this picture Sunday morning--Jared was helping Seth practice tying his tie. I thought it was cute!:

Monday (9th): I did some service at lunch time--our ward helps with this community service project every year. One local charity provides hot lunches that are served for free at some of the parks in the area (targeted at lower income areas, where there are children who may not be getting lunch during the summer months). Several churches in the area work together to provide volunteers to serve the lunches, and this week was our ward's turn and I signed up to help on Monday. It is easy work and always kind of fun because there are other people I know from the ward helping too. We can bring our kids with us (and they can eat lunch too) but Seth preferred to stay home and since Frank was home most of the time I let him stay home. Frank and Seth both got haircuts and they both look nice! Seth especially needed a haircut so the change is pretty drastic (but in a good way). We also booked a flight for Jared to go out to school in the fall; he and Jessie will be going together on the same flight. Frank had a dentist appointment to get a crown put on that afternoon. He wasn't feeling really well but he decided to go anyway and we're glad he got that taken care of. He also asked about getting me in and someone had just cancelled so he got me an appointment for Wednesday. By evening Frank was feeling a lot worse and Jared was at work (he worked both jobs that day) so we didn't really have family night. Seth had picked out a treat, though, so he and I played Master Mind and ate some of the treat while Frank was lying down upstairs.

Tuesday (10th): Nothing out of the ordinary happened; I kept pretty busy getting the regular chores done. I had den meeting that evening--we talked about rules for cooking and made plans for some cooking that we are going to do next week. We also took the boys outside to play a game. We were supposed to have a Cub Committee Meeting after den meetings, but the cub committee chair didn't show up so we cancelled the meeting. Oh, I guess one thing out of the ordinary happened--Jared left that morning to help with a "Camp Helaman" activity that our stake was doing for the older YM. It's basically a missionary training thing that they do every year. (It's evolved over the years--when my boys went, it was more of a spiritual high adventure thing where they were camping.) This year, they have been staying at a small college in Pennsylvania and it's more like a mini MTC--they have been with companions and were wearing missionary clothes all week and so forth. Jared was asked several weeks ago if he could attend as a leader and help with the training, and he was happy to do it, so he has been gone all week. He gets back this evening.

Wednesday (11th): I was not home a lot on Wednesday. I went to see my friend Wanda that morning--she had called to ask me to please come trim her bangs for her and she also needed a few things at the store. So I trimmed her bangs and she gave me a list of what she needed and some money to buy it with. I got back from Wanda's with enough time to eat some lunch and then I went to my religion class. After class I was only home for about an hour before I had to go to the dentist. It was just my 6 month cleaning and check up, and everything looks good. When I got home from the dentist, I made dinner and then I went to the last meeting for our self reliance group. Frank was going to come too but he still wasn't feeling well and he had ended up doing work for a client nearly all day, so he just wanted to lie down! The meeting went well; we went over the last 4 foundational principles of self reliance and once again had a great discussion. There is really good stuff in there! If you have every considered taking one of the self reliance courses, I encourage you to do it.

Thursday (12th): On Thursday I helped with the lunch program again. I hadn't signed up to help this time, but someone else had some health problems and was forced to cancel, so I was filling in. I got up fairly early and got a lot of chores done before I went, including the weekly grocery shopping and getting the stuff that my friend Wanda needed. Afterwards, Seth had the carpool boys over to play for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Frank decided that he had been sick long enough, so he got an appointment to go into the doctor that evening. He was diagnosed with a sinus infection and an antibiotic was prescribed. I took Seth with me and we went to the pharmacy to pick up Frank's prescription. I also was able to find one more thing for my friend Wanda, which I hadn't been able to find at Walmart earlier that day. I decided to drop it off to her on our way home, but that turned out to take a lot longer than I thought because the front lobby at the nursing home had just closed. We could still go in, but we had to find another entrance and ring a doorbell and wait for someone to let us in. We also had to have help getting back out because everything was locked up. Wanda was really grateful, though! By the time we got home we just had time to get ready for bed and to do some reading (Percy Jackson series) before going to bed.

Friday (13th): Frank and I were asked if we could help with Camp Helaman today by being "investigators" for the YM to practice teaching. So we drove up to Pennsylvania this morning to do that. Seth stayed with another family in the ward while we were gone (they have a boy his age, so he was happy to do that). The drive up there was all on back roads through beautiful country, so we enjoyed that. We also had the chance to talk a lot (without interruption!), which was really nice. We were taught by 3 different groups of YM while we were there (2 companionships and one threesome). They would teach us and then we would give them feed back. They all did a good job and we were able to point out many positive things to them, as well as give them suggestions of things they could do better. Overall, I was really impressed with their testimonies. You could definitely feel their sincerity and I knew they meant what they were saying. They were also really good at being courteous, making eye contact, and so forth. The main thing I think they all could work on is keeping what they teach simple--sticking to the main topic and not offering a lot of extra information, which would probably be confusing to someone who doesn't know anything about the gospel. That will come with practice! We just got back from doing that a few hours ago so now I am trying to get the regular chores done. Jared will be home in a few hours and Sam is coming tonight too.

The weather has stayed nice all week. It is hotter now (low 90s) but the humidity is still low so it is quite pleasant and I have really been enjoying that! My throat is still not completely back to normal (still have some junk in it / a slight cough sometimes) but it usually doesn't hurt anymore. My eyes are still about the same--goopy every morning, and still some discharge during the day too. Some days are worse than others, but overall they are a lot better than they were a few weeks ago. I admit I am feeling impatient--wishing they would just get all the way better already! It's been over 3 weeks!!

Frank is feeling better today than yesterday--I'm glad he has something that is treatable with antibiotics! He has still been pretty busy this week with work for clients and didn't get much done on his office (he did do a little bit, though). He also cleaned out his car and it looks a ton better. He was contacted again this week by the place that is very interested in hiring him and that process is moving along (but slowly!) He checked back with a few other places and found out they are still interested too (just also moving slowly!), and he continues to apply for new positions as he finds them. It is very hard on him to not be working; he just feels the need to be providing!

I have been reading a lot, both by myself and to Seth. We are over halfway into the last book in the second Percy Jackson series so I think we will be finishing it in the next week or so. I guess I need to start thinking about what we are going to read next. We've been reading Percy Jackson for so long because there are 10 books, so I haven't had to think about that for a long time. I finished The Story of Mankind, although it was funny to finish it since it was written about 1921--so it's really the story of mankind, less 100 years, and a LOT has changed in the last 100 years! I need to pick something else to read now--I will probably read another Newbery since I got a few for my birthday. I have also been working on a project for Seth's teacher. She sent home one of the Montessori "works" called pin maps which needs to be organized so I've been working on that here and there this week. I did not ask Seth to help me, but he has willingly come over and started helping me when he sees me working on it, which has been nice. Originally, I wanted to get it done before we leave for vacation, but it's a lot more involved than I realized so I don't think I will finish it before then but at least I've made a start.

All of my attempts to work on brain balance stuff with Seth were derailed this week, but I did finish 10 days of keeping track of what he eats. I didn't really see any correlation between what he is eating and his behavior, so I don't think he has any food sensitivities (at least, not any dramatic ones) but it was still worthwhile to keep the food diary because what I did notice was how very little fruits and vegetables he eats! I thought I was doing a lot better about having him eat things from those categories, but it was clear after keeping track for 10 days that he needs a much more balanced diet. So my main goal lately is to make sure he gets at least one serving of fruit or vegetables at every meal. He really doesn't like vegetables (except the starchy kinds like potatoes and corn, which we are trying to eat very sparingly since they are high in carbs) and he only likes a few kinds of fruit so it can be challenging to get him to eat fruits and vegetables but after talking to him about it and letting him know we need to work on it, he has been more cooperative.

Just an update on the older boys--Tanner has been at camping at Bear lake with Darlee and her parents for most of this week and keeps sending me photos of the blue water! He is having a great time, I think. Scott just moved into a new apartment on Saturday. He and a friend are renting the place together, which is a basement apartment in a house in Kearns. His roommate is a friend from work; he is divorced and has a 3 year old daughter who is with him on weekends. Scott hasn't figured out yet where he is going to go to church, but he is thinking about trying the singles ward. He did go on a date a few weeks ago--Amanda set him up on a blind date and they doubled with Amanda and her boyfriend--and he had a really good time. He and the girl seemed to have a lot in common and they agreed that they want to go out again. She was going out of town for a week or two, though, so they haven't gone out again yet. (And every other time he has gone out with a girl and hit it off, it seems like she is about to go out of town and then their communication fizzles out and he never sees her again, so I'm not getting my hopes up too high but maybe this time will be different!) He is thinking about taking some more online classes also. I think I already covered what Jared is doing mostly. He spends most of his free time with Jessie and they are getting pretty serious and talking about getting married next summer sometime. Maybe Tanner is headed that way, too, although I haven't talked to him about that in a while.

That is all the news from these parts. We will see you all soon!! :)

Weekly Review July 6 '18

Here we are, another week gone by and another week closer to the family reunion! :) Here's what we've been doing:

Saturday (30th): I took Seth to swimming lessons in the morning while Frank went to a job interview in Virginia. The interview went well and I think they are very interested in hiring Frank but the process could be lengthy so I'm not sure if that is going to be the best option. He's going to keep moving forward with that, though, and in the meantime he is still looking for other possibilities. I was getting thoroughly tired of sitting around doing nothing (I've been sick too much lately) and on Saturday I felt pretty good so I did a fairly thorough cleaning in the kitchen in addition to sweeping and mopping the floor. I also wanted to mow the lawn (I wasn't able to do it the week before and it was looking like a jungle) but it was high 90's with humidity in the 90% so I waited until later in the evening to do that. It was kind of funny because a lot of people were out mowing their lawns at the same time--I guess we all had the same idea! It was still pretty hot but it wasn't too bad. When I went out in the back to start mowing, I realized that we had grown a real bumper crop of weeds in the back garden area so I took some time to pull the weeds first. (Some of them were a couple of feet tall!) Frank edged the lawns while I pulled the weeds and then I mowed. It's been almost a week now but the lawn still looks pretty good. It's been so hot that I don't think the lawn has been growing much.

Sunday (1st): Frank didn't sleep well and he accidentally slept through his 7:00 am stake missionary correlation meeting. He wasn't feeling really great that day--sometimes the diabetes stuff just makes him feel kind of "off", even if his blood sugar level is in the normal range. I still wasn't feeling fantastic (still had a sore throat and somewhat goopy eyes) but I was able to go to all of our church meetings, which was nice. I was able to fast from food but decided I should probably keep drinking water after being sick for so long. I didn't go to choir practice because I still couldn't sing a bean (and still can't really, although my voice is improving) and besides that they are working on the song they are singing in July which they will be performing while we are out of town so there doesn't seem to be much point in going, other than I like all the people there. :) We have been taking care of some cats for a neighbor who is out of town and Sunday was our first day to do that. All we have to do is let them in the house in the mornings and let them out at night, check their food and water bowls, and give them treats in the mornings. We don't even have to go every day although it was so hot earlier in the week that we went every day. We are also bringing in their mail and watering a couple of plants. Tomorrow is our last day to do that although we will be doing it again for them later next week because they are going out of town again. It's actually Seth they hired to do this for them, but I have been helping him. We had family night that night because Jared had to work on Monday night.

Monday (2nd): I started exercising again and I did that every day this week except for Wednesday. I have been practicing ukulele most days too. I can't think of anything noteworthy that day; I just did the usual chores. I also spent a lot of time (way too much) deleting old emails in my inbox because I had over 2,000 messages! Jared worked at both jobs so he was gone most of the day. I continued to do chores with Seth each day and we stuck to his screen time most days except for Wednesday (because it was a holiday) and yesterday he got away with some extra time too. Jared hasn't been home as much this week so Seth didn't have a lot of time watching Jared play games, which has been good. After we let the cats out that night, we drove to a nearby park to see / catch fireflies for a while. It was super hot but we enjoyed it:

I wish fireflies showed up better in pictures / videos! They are just something you need to experience in real life! I took a few videos that night and you can see a few fireflies in some of them, but when I tried to post one on here I found out they were too long--blogger won't let me! Sorry! On Monday evening my right ear (outside, on top) started bothering me. It hurt / felt itchy. It was worse on Tuesday and it was kind of swollen. Frank looked at it and said it was red and swollen, but he couldn't see any bump, cut, or bug bite. Strange! It really bothered me on Tuesday but on Wednesday it wasn't bothering me as much and looked less red. By Thursday it was almost back to normal. No idea what that was about! Since I just got my hair cut on Friday, we thought maybe the scissors had nicked me and it got a little infected. If that is really what happened, though, I did not feel the nick when it happened. I'm just glad my ear is feeling better now.

Tuesday (3rd): Jared worked both jobs again and I kept busy with usual chores. I also started working on a project that I won't describe because it will be either birthday or Christmas presents for the older boys (depending on how soon I get the project done). I mean, I don't think they ever read my blog, but just in case! That evening we went to see some fireworks in the nearby town of Walkersville. They have a carnival every year during the week of the 4th of July and they usually have fireworks at least one night. They are usually just as good as the fireworks the city of Frederick does on the 4th, and it is less crowded and easier to get there and back, so we often go to those fireworks. We enjoyed them a lot. 

Wednesday (4th): We started out Independence Day by going to a community / stake Patriotic breakfast and program. A member of our stake presidency and his family do it every year. Frank used to go help cook the breakfast in past years but he isn't up to doing that anymore. We haven't gone in a while because we've been out of town for the 4th a lot and other years we just didn't want to get up that early!! Jared was singing in some of the songs this year, though, so we decided to go. Jessie came with us too. It was still pretty hot but not too bad. There was plenty of yummy food for breakfast and the program was quite nice. They made an effort to get through it quickly because it was hot outside. There were a number of musical numbers, they did a segment honoring women during the Revolutionary War, they also honored African Americans who fought in a number of wars, and had several veterans and current military members there as well which they honored. There were actually 2 veterans from WWII--both of them in their 90s!! A retired military guy gave a really great speech, too. I'm glad we went because it reminded me of how grateful I am to be an American, and that's really what we should be thinking about on Independence Day, right? Here are a few pictures from that event:

The two in the middle are Jared singing and the last one is a missionary whose costume I really liked! After we got back from the breakfast, we played some games (including a hilarious one that Shellie sent us a few years ago called the mouthguard game). Then Frank decided to take Seth to see the new Jurassic Park movie and Jessie & Jared left to go to her grandparents house for a family gathering (and they went on from there to the Walkersville carnival for the evening). I was more than happy to have a couple of quiet hours at home by myself! When Seth and Frank got back, we had a traditional hot dog / watermelon / potato salad / baked beans dinner (and asparagus, too, which isn't traditional but Frank can't eat a lot of those other things). Seth said he didn't care if we went to the Frederick fireworks since we had just gone to some the night before and Frank was more than happy not to fight the crowds, so we didn't go. I wouldn't have minded going to see more fireworks (since I love them!) but I was also okay since we just saw some the night before. Besides that, it rained that evening! So it was nice to stay home and relax. Seth played games / watched television and I watched the movie The Princess Diaries on Netflix, which of course I had seen before but not for a long time and it's a favorite of mine. Frank was down in his office working on some stuff but I think he was watching Netflix too. My right eye started bothering me quite a bit Wednesday evening and it has been redder and more goopy since then. I keep thinking my eyes are almost better and then they get worse again! I'm now starting my third week with goopy eyes and hoping that someday they will get completely better!

Thursday (5th): This was also a fun relaxing day, although I did get all of the regular chores done like laundry and vacuuming and I even went grocery shopping. I enjoyed all the birthday wishes I got, particularly the phone calls from Scott, Mom, and Tanner. In the afternoon (after Jared got home from work), I opened presents and in the evening had the traditional blueberry cheesecake, which Frank made for me. (He made dinner, too.) As an extra birthday treat, he took me (and Seth) out to watch fireflies again that evening.

Presents! I went on Amazon and made a wishlist last week and then Frank looked at my list and picked out a few things for me, so I didn't get anything unexpected, but I was still surprised about which things I actually got. :) It's hard to tell in the picture, but that is a new can opener (the kind that can be mounted under a cabinet, so it doesn't take up counter space), a huge bag of Jelly Bellies, a Piano Guys CD, some earrings, 3 books (all Newbery winners--I am trying to get all of them), and a boot. (I did get a set of boots--there's only one in the picture!)  Later on in the day, another package arrived with this shirt in it (sorry it's sideways!):

I picked this shirt out because I love saguaros and I love the advice! I almost didn't put it on my list, though, because I was pretty sure it would be too big. I often have trouble finding t-shirts that fit right. They will be okay in width, but way too long, unless they come in petite sizes (and this shirt didn't have petite sizes). I was right about this shirt too--it is WAY too long, even longer than most shirts are on me. But I decided to put it on the list because I figured I could use it for a night shirt, which I did last night. I think I might try to shorten it, though. When I was looking online for help to shorten the blouse I got a few months ago, I also came across instructions for shortening t-shirts, and it sounded pretty easy.

Here's the cheesecake: 

 
Yum!!

Sorry I look pretty goofy in all these pictures. These are the best ones we got. In most of them I have my eyes closed (always a problem for me) or I moved right when Frank took the picture. (He never warns me.) Anyway, even the best ones look goofy because my right eye is kind of red and swollen. Maybe someday I will be able to wear eye makeup again, but I am waiting for my eyes to get all the way better. I threw out the makeup I was using when I got sick (most of it was pretty old anyway) and got new stuff, but haven't used it yet.

Friday (6th): That brings us to today. I haven't done much yet, besides write this post. Seth did some cleaning in his room (although it still is pretty messy, just not as bad as it was). Jared is working now but he doesn't have to work tonight or tomorrow. One of my ministering sisters just stopped by and brought me a book and some somewhat healthy snacks, which I appreciate! The book is about the Holy Land and she says it was one of the textbooks she enjoyed when she went on a study abroad in the Holy Land many years ago. She knows I like that kind of stuff. :) I'm sure I will really enjoy it. (It's not a super thick book, and it has lots of diagrams and photographs.) We had another thunderstorm last night and it has already rained a bit today. We are supposed to have more thunderstorms this afternoon also. It is still quite hot and very humid, even after the storms. They just seem to wet things down and add to the steaminess instead of clearing the air. Tomorrow and Sunday we are supposed to be down in the 80's, though, so that will be a nice change. Seth was supposed to have the 11 year old camp out tonight (the one that got postponed at the beginning of June because of thunderstorms) but it has been cancelled again because of predicted thunderstorms again! I'm not sure if they are going to try to pick another date or if it is just plain cancelled. If they try again, I think they probably won't be able to have it until fall. The other ward where he has been attending 11 year old scout meetings also decided to cancel all their activities for the month of July, so unless our ward decides to call an 11 year old scout leader, he won't have any scouts until August.

Frank has continued to be very busy this last week with work for clients and he has continued to apply for jobs. He still hasn't had any time to work on cleaning up his office / the basement, alas!! But at least he is bringing in income, which I appreciate.

My throat does not hurt very much anymore but it is still kind of yucky and I have a slight cough. I'm wondering if that illness I had has morphed right into allergy problems. (I do take an allergy pill every day, though.) It's hard to tell. I am glad that at least I'm not down in bed sick anymore and I can get some things done. Still looking forward to a full recovery some day!

Just a few thoughts on being 50 as I finish up this week's post. I used to really dread the idea of getting older. I used to think that 40 was really old (haha!) and I thought that I would be so sad when I turned 40. As it happened, I ended up having Seth when I was nearly 39, so when I turned 40 I had a 1 year old baby and I didn't feel old at all. So I didn't mind, and that was nice. I wondered if I would feel differently about turning 50, but I don't. I've decided that it is actually kind of silly to be ashamed of your age. I mean, for one thing, no one has any choice about getting older, right? But besides that, I think we should be proud (in a good way) of our age, not try to hide it. (Okay, and the fact that people are always telling me that I don't LOOK as old as I am probably helps, I admit it.) Getting older means that you have had that much more time to learn, grow, and gain wisdom, and it means you have made it through a lot of tough things. I feel like a completely different person than I was at 20, 30, 40, and even 45! Somewhere in the last few years something changed in me. I'm not sure when it happened, or how, or even exactly what, but I am much, much more comfortable in my own skin than I was even 5 years ago. I mostly feel happy and I don't worry so much about what people think of me anymore. I don't mean that in a negative way--I still care about how I treat other people and sometimes worry whether I hurt someone's feelings by being insensitive or thoughtless in the things I say or do. But I think I finally realized that no one is paying that much attention to me. They are worrying about themselves, for the most part. It's even more than that, though. I think my relationship with Heavenly Father has continued to grow and develop and I feel His love more frequently. Not because He loves me more, but because I have learned to accept His love more, and to recognize it more in my life. And feeling His love makes all the difference, really. I know that in spite of my imperfections, I'm enough just the way I am. I can keep repenting and trying to be better, and I will. But I'm not so bad the way I am now. That affects how I feel about myself and how I behave every day. I have also learned a few new things in the last few years and I love that I can keep learning no matter how old I am! And one last thing that I like about getting older--experience helps me feel more serene and peaceful when things aren't going well. I mean, honestly 2018 has been a pretty difficult year so far. Overall, though, I have mostly felt peaceful and happy. Sure, some things aren't going so great right now but I've been through other rough times and everything turned out okay in the end then and I'm confident that they will now. So many of the hard things in my life, looking back, turned out to be blessings. We really are in Heavenly Father's hands, He loves us, and He's looking out for us. He sent His son to help us find peace and healing in the hard times and to help us make things right when we mess up. There's nothing He can't do! I've been learning that truth all of my 50 years, and I'm sure I will continue to learn it as long as I live. So yes--being 50 is pretty great!