Weekly Review November 2 '18

This week was not as difficult or as stressful as last week, I am happy to say. I still have a lot going on and a lot of new things to adjust to, but I'm feeling better about everything.

I guess I can start with Sunday since last week I wrote late Saturday night. We had tithing settlement on Sunday morning. At church, I was released as a den leader although they didn't call new den leaders yet. We didn't have den meetings this week so that didn't matter so much and hopefully new den leaders will be called this Sunday. I don't start teaching my Primary class until next week. On Sunday I also worked on Faith in God with Seth and worked on some things for my music calling, and we had family night (we do the activity and treat part on Mondays and the lesson part on Sundays). Our ward had their Primary program and it was awesome, as always. I was happy that Seth spoke his part clearly and actually looked at the audience too! When did he grow up and become so poised?

On Monday I went into the high school to see if I could get a transcript for Scott--he needed either his diploma or a transcript for a job he was interviewing for. They wouldn't give me a transcript (since he is over 18) but I did find out who he needed to contact to get one. I had errands to run, like going to the bank and getting more food for Snickers from the vet, as well as the usual grocery shopping, vacuuming, and laundry. Remember how I submitted an application to the school system on Saturday? To my surprise, I got an email on Monday morning inviting me to sign up for an orientation. I didn't expect to hear back from them that soon! The next orientation was for Friday, so I signed up for that one. I also spent some time filling out paperwork for that job. Last week, my bishop let me know about another possible job being a "coach", assisting people with disabilities. I was so swamped with the school application that I decided to wait until Monday to look into that job. I sent an email to the contact person for that job, letting her know I was interested in learning more about it, and she called me back about 15 minutes later! She let me know about one of the people she needed someone to help, and she sounds like a good match for me, so she asked me to fill out an application. I got that done on Wednesday evening and I will have an interview early next week. This job will be 15 hours a week or less and I can schedule my hours when it works for me. The substitute job is sporadic, of course, so I should be able to do both jobs.

On Tuesday, besides the usual stuff, I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah and that evening I had book chat. As always, book chat was a blast! We discussed the book Does My Head Look Big In This?, which was a book about a Muslim teenage girl who decides to wear the hijab. It was a really good book and there was a lot to discuss. I have to bring book suggestions for next time, which always stresses me out a bit because I have a hard time coming up with good suggestions but I'll do my best! I also spent about an hour on Tuesday at the storage unit going through boxes looking for Scott's diploma, since he wasn't hearing back from the lady at the school about his transcript. I found Tanner's diploma and I found Jared's diploma, but I didn't find Scott's. Fortunately, he did finally hear back from the lady at the high school and he got his transcript so that all worked out. He did well on the interview too! It's for a job to be a police officer for the city of Sandy and he found out the day after the interview that he has advanced to the next level, so that is good news. In the meantime, I haven't mentioned that he also was offered a 3 month internship in the financial department at his current job, and he is starting that on Monday.

I complained about the weather being chilly and wet last week, but this week we got some perfectly beautiful days and Wednesday was one of them. I got the normal chores done and went to the religion class. After class, I met with our ward choir director (she also attends the class) for a few minutes to discuss plans for the Christmas Sacrament Meeting program. I'm still in the process of choosing all the musical numbers, but talking to her helped me figure out what I'm doing a little better. After I got home, I decided I should take advantage of the nice weather and get the lawn mowed. I had that on my calendar for this weekend but it was supposed to be raining by the weekend (and it is) so I decided to do it early, and I'm glad I did. That evening we were occupied with trick or treating, of course. I took Seth out while Frank stayed home to pass out candy. Even after the sun went down, the temperatures were still in the 50s, so that was really nice! We went a little further than we usually do this year. Seth wanted to go to the house of the family we used to carpool with, as well as to the house of a girl in his class at school who also lives in that neighborhood so we did a loop through that neighborhood as well as going around our court. A lot of people on our court don't pass out candy so most years he only fills his pumpkin about half full (but he's fine with that!) Since we did that extra couple of blocks of houses, he ended up with a full pumpkin this year. (And even then, we actually passed up several houses because he didn't want to stop--he said his pumpkin was getting too heavy!!) I didn't buy a ton of candy this year, but we had fewer trick or treaters so we ended up with a whole bag of candy left over. That's bad news, since I will definitely eat candy if it is lying around the house! 

Thursday was another beautiful day--sunny and in the 70s! Welcome, November!! (If only the whole month were like that.) I was really busy because I had several "extra" things to do, besides the usual vacuuming and laundry. I had agreed to help a member in our ward who needed a ride for her and her son to a doctor's appointment. (Her car broke down a few days ago.) I dropped them off at the doctor (I also dropped a couple of her kids off at school on the way) and then went to the library to pick up a book for Seth. Then I went back, and read the Book of Mormon while I waited for them to finish. Afterwards, we dropped her son off at school and she asked me to drop her off at a grocery store, so that's what I did. When we got to the store, we ended up talking for a while about her daughter--I know her daughter and she is worried about her. This lady is less active, but her daughter was coming to church pretty regularly for a while. It's always good for me to be reminded that even though someone may not come to church often (or at all) that they still have a relationship with God and still want their children to make good choices. I may not have a lot in common with this sister, but we are both mothers and we both worry about our kids, and that is a strong connection! On Thursday I also did some weeding for another family in our ward (I did some before-the mom in the family has cancer and the dad recently had back surgery. They are both older--probably in their 70s or 80s.) They found out a few weeks ago that the mom's cancer has spread from her pancreas and her liver to her lungs, and she is too weak for treatment so she is on hospice care now. Very sad, but they have a lot of faith, and they are coping! Anyway, it was the perfect day to be outside and I enjoyed it although my back is hurting a little bit today. Then in the evening I had an appointment to get my hair done. Afterwards, I spent some time going over all the paperwork I needed to have done for the substitute teacher orientation today. Somewhere in between all of that, I looked through a couple of quilting books that I checked out at the library--I'm thinking about making a couple of quilts. (In my spare time--haha!) Right now, I'm just trying to get some ideas and looking for some simple quilt patterns to see if it is even feasible for me to try to make something.

Today it is still pretty warm (60s) but it's cloudy and it has rained some so it's not as beautiful as yesterday. All the trees are beautiful, though! I swear, last week at this time most trees still had green leaves but somehow in the last week all of the leaves have turned colors so our street is a beautiful collage of yellow, red, orange, and maroon. Anyway, I spent the whole morning at the orientation for substitute teachers, because it was from 8:00 to noon. It was interesting, though, and there was a lot of good information. I was fingerprinted and once they run my fingerprints and find out that I'm not a criminal (that takes about a week), I will be officially hired and I will be able to start signing up to work. I was surprised to find out in the orientation how many substitutes they need each day--hundreds! That doesn't mean I'll be working every day, of course. I only signed up to work at a few of the schools, for one thing. Maybe once I've done this for a while and I'm more comfortable with it, I will sign up for more schools. That's all I've done today, really, is go to the orientation. After I got home, I ate lunch and worked on this post for a while before going to pick up Seth from school. I'll be spending the rest of the day updating the budget, probably. That's actually my favorite chore, though. I guess I will always be an accountant. :)

I guess I didn't take any photos this week, so that's all I've got for this week.