I have about an hour before my YW presidency meeting starts so I will try to be quick and get this post done before then!
Remember last week I mentioned that Frank had a big online presentation at work and that it went well? The presentation was for the company who provides their security cameras, showing other potential buyers how they use the cameras in their company. On Friday Frank came home with this nice gift basket from the security camera company, as a thank you for his part of the presentation. I didn't get a photo before he dismantled it, but here is one after he removed all the items from the basket:
We've been enjoying the variety of tasty treats, which includes crackers, candy, cheese spread, mustard, and cookies.
Jared didn't make it over to our house on Friday after all, but on Saturday morning he and Jessie met us at a place called Adventure Park to play mini golf. It was excruciatingly hot & humid, but we still had fun. It was a close game, with Jared winning closely followed by Jessie, me, and Frank...all four of us were each one point apart! Then Seth was only 3 or 4 points behind Frank. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't win, since I was in first place until the last couple of holes when I messed up! Oh well! After that, we went to Red Robin for lunch. Then we went back home and Jared finished going through all of his boxes. He managed to get rid of so much stuff that we only had to take 3 boxes back to the storage unit...not bad, since he had 11 boxes before that! We had Chinese food for dinner and later we went to Rita's to get some gelati. Jared & Jessie stayed at our house until Monday morning, when they left for Tennessee.
On Sunday we went to church as usual. The one difference is that we didn't have to wear masks for the first time...that was nice. Everything is back to normal except that they are still taking a lot of precautions with preparing, blessing, and passing the sacrament. Also, to help with passing the sacrament they are still having us sit on every other row. But it is great to be mask free, to be able to sing, and to be able to talk to people afterwards. Sunday went by fast because I had a class presidency meeting before church, a camp meeting after church (online) and Jessie was going to her sister Emily's seminary graduation that evening. We had to fit dinner in there too, and our church meetings are from 1:30 to 3:30 so we had a lot to do in a few hours. Also, Frank had an overnight job on Sunday night and had to leave about 6:00. Jared, Seth and I played a game while Jessie was at the Seminary graduation. It's called Forbidden Island and it's a group game where you are trying to capture 4 treasures and get everyone off the island before it sinks. The island is made up of 24 tiles when you start the game. We won the game, but barely! I had to take this photo to show how close it was:
Only 4 tiles left when we finished capturing the last treasure and made it to the helicopter pad! It's a pretty fun game.
Jared & Jessie left early Monday morning, as I mentioned. I got Seth to school and then I had shopping to do. I needed to get some groceries for us but I also took time to price a lot of items for Girls' Camp. After I got home, Frank went with me to Goodwill (he was awake by then) to donate a bunch of stuff (Jared's and some of our own) and then we went to Costco to get a couple of things and I priced some more items for Girls' Camp. After we got back home I was finally able to vacuum and sweep the whole house...I hadn't been able to do that for a few days because of Jared's boxes that were everywhere. Frank worked about a half day, since he worked all night the night before. We hadn't had a chance to do the lesson portion of family night on Sunday (as we usually do) so we did that part as well as the activity / treat part that evening.
Tuesday was a pretty normal day with Seth going to school and the regular chores, plus YM / YW activities that evening. Frank had to work again on Tuesday night, though, so he left around 9:00 for work. The YM played badminton for their activity. They opted to play inside the gym instead of outside because it was still really hot and humid. The YW had a farewell party for all the girls who are leaving...two just graduated and are headed out west for school, plus 6 other girls (from 3 different families) are moving. We are sad to be losing so many girls! There are a lot of families moving out of our ward right now...not just those three families with YW age girls. For our activity we played a game and made memory books for the girls who are leaving.
Wednesday was quite busy because besides the usual school and chores, Seth had an orthodontist appointment in the afternoon...they put his bottom braces on. Also, that evening the Elders came over to our house (first time in over a year!) to do another practice discussion with us, and right after that I had a RS activity. For the RS activity we were making encouraging cards to give to foster kids who are aging out of the foster care system soon. It was really fun to visit while we made cards. Besides all of those activities, I was busy during the day with ordering some supplies for our next YW activity, working on calculations for food for Girls' Camp, and I also sewed a button onto some shorts for Frank. So as I said...it was a busy day.
This last week has mostly been very hot, with temperatures in the 90s, but yesterday we got some rain (short but torrential) and today it is raining and supposed to rain all day and the high temperature is only going to be 68 degrees. Yesterday I didn't wake up until nearly 8:00 for some reason so I got a late start to the day but thankfully I just had the usual things to do mostly. Frank and I also took our cars in to get oil changes and I took the time to watch the Church's broadcast for parents and leaders of children and youth. The broadcast was on Sunday but I didn't have time to watch it then. It was really good and the advantage to watching it later was that I was able to pause it and write down notes. I took a lot of notes...both of things I want to do as a parent with Seth and things I want to do with the girls as a YW leader. Frank had to work again last night but thankfully only for a few hours this time...he got home shortly after midnight. He planned to take today off, except for emergencies, but he started working this morning around 8:30 and I haven't seen him yet (it's nearly 1:00)...so much for taking the day off!
Today I have just been working on the usual chores. As I expected, Seth has not had a lot of work to do for school this week. He and a couple of other kids in his class were in the local newspaper this week though. They all did "social awareness" projects this term and his group recycled plastic grocery bags into yarn (they call it "plarn" for plastic yarn) and then a few of the girls in the group are crocheting the plarn into mats to be donated to homeless shelters. A few kids in his group filled out a press release and a reporter from the local paper decided to do a story on them. She visited the school on Monday and the story appeared in Tuesday's paper. Just a note: Monday also happened to be pajama day, so that's why Seth is wearing pajamas in the photos!! Here is a link to the article if you would like to read it.
I think it is cool that they did this, and definitely it was a worthwhile project, I just wish they could have done this in addition to studying United States history, instead of studying United States history. (He was supposed to study US History this year and then they changed the curriculum.) Seth is going into high school and still knows very little about US history, which is ridiculous. He will have a US History class in high school, thank goodness. In the meantime, we may do some studying of our own this summer.
I have been busy reading in between everything else we've been doing and I am almost finished with the book for book chat (The Girls of Atomic City). It's definitely been an interesting book to read and has led me to doing some online research about atomic bomb testing and stuff like that.
Jared & Jessie are returning from Tennesse today and they will be staying with us tonight before returning to Utah tomorrow morning. We are looking forward to seeing them again, even though it will only be for a brief time. I think they had a great time in Tennessee with Jessie's family.
Well, I managed to get this post written in time so I will publish it and go on to my meeting!
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