Weekly Review July 9 '21

 This week was quite busy again...lots of work, but lots of fun too!

On Saturday I went to the store to get some things for my friend Wanda. Frank & Seth came also...we got some shorts and a swim shirt for Seth. Then we went to another store to get a new kitchen faucet. The one we have is not working very well...it's hard to turn it off without leaving it dripping. It's been like this for quite some time, but it's been getting worse the last month or so. It seems like we replaced it not too long ago, but when I started to think about it I realized it was replaced in 2012. I guess 11 years isn't too bad. We all got haircuts on Saturday too. 

Sunday was Independence Day, as you all know. 

I woke up quite early (not unusual for me in the summer) so I had a lot of nice quiet time to read scriptures and such. At church we got to meet in the RS room for Sunday school for the first time since the pandemic shut everything down. (We've been meeting in the chapel.) It's so great to have so many things getting back to normal! That evening, we walked down the street to see the fireworks. Usually the City of Frederick does fireworks at a park in the downtown historical district called Baker Park. This year, because the CDC is still recommending that large gatherings not be held if social distancing isn't possible, they decided to do the fireworks at the Frederick county fairgrounds where there is a lot of parking so people could just drive up and watch them from their cars. We cannot see fireworks from Baker Park at home, but the fairgrounds are much closer to us so all we had to do is walk out to the main road by our house and walk down that street to the corner and we had a great view of the fireworks. I wish they had the fireworks at the fairgrounds every year!! There were a lot of people who had the same idea as we did, but we still had no trouble finding a place to put down our camp chairs. We saw one fireworks display and they seemed to be too far away and in the wrong direction to be the fairgrounds. But then as soon as those fireworks ended, another display started and those ones were much closer and in the right place! So it was nice that we got to see two fireworks shows. I took a few pictures / videos, but they aren't very good. 

We had some yummy cupcakes to eat while watching the fireworks.

Last photo of me as a 52 year old!

The weekend was quite pleasant weather...not too hot and lower humidity...but on Monday it got really hot and humid and it has been that way most of the week. We did get some rain yesterday and it cooled down a bit. It's warming back up today and this weekend is going to be really hot and humid again.

Monday was my birthday...as usual; it always comes the day after Independence Day! 😉 Frank had the day off, but there was a problem with one of the stores so he ended up working a bit. Actually, nearly 6 hours overall, so that wasn't much of a day off! I opened presents around lunch time and I got some nice things. 

Silly card from Seth

This is a game (Ramen Fury)

A book about how to crochet sweaters. I'm going to try this!

Latest Newbery winner book

A book about dollhouse miniatures

I also got a Maryland crab decal for my car and a cake decorating kit with instructions.

I'm honestly not sure where the day went...it went by really fast! Seth and Frank did most of the laundry for me and they also vacuumed and swept. All three of the older boys called me at different times so I spent quite a bit of time on the phone. Seth went to a get together with some friends from school in the late afternoon. That was kind of nice because while he was playing video games and enjoying pizza, Frank and I got to go out to eat without having to pick a place that Seth would like! I decided I wanted to try out a new Mediterranean place called Cava. It's similar to Chipotle and places like that, except it's Mediterranean instead of Mexican. It was pretty good, but not fantastic. After Seth got back home, we had cheesecake:

It was a yummy ending to a great day.

Tuesday was crazy!! It started early because Seth had stake YM camp, and I had to have him at the church at 7:25 am to catch a ride with the carpool. For the first day, they went to a local state park called Cunningham Falls. They hiked, did a service project clearing brush, and went swimming in a lake. The boys Seth's age also got to build rafts. I think he had a really fun time. Meanwhile, I was not sitting around all day. I exercised, cleaned the bathrooms, and then went to a friend's house to help her because she is moving. My friend Rebekah and her daughter Emily (who is in my YW class) were there to help also. We helped moved some things from the basement to the main level and then Rebekah and I painted a small room. After that I was supposed to go to a different friend's house to help because she is also moving (we have tons of people moving out of our ward right now; it's sad) but the time got moved back to a few hours later. So I went home and had some lunch and had a little bit of time to read and do some chores before I had to leave to pick up boys from YM camp. There were 3 boys from our ward besides Seth attending. I dropped all of the boys off at their homes and since Cunningham Falls is about 30 minutes from here, that whole process took about an hour and a half. After I took Seth home I went to my other friend's house to help her. There were a lot of people there helping but there was still a lot to do. I helped with some cleaning and packing for about an hour but I couldn't stay long because there was a YW activity that evening. 

I came home and took a quick shower because I was a sweaty mess (neither of my friends seemed to have their air conditioning on that day, even though it was in the high 90s with high humidity...or maybe they had it on but too many people were going in and out), wolfed down some food (Frank made dinner thankfully), said goodbye to Frank (he was working that night) and then went to the YW activity. For the activity we played games and it was really fun. First we played a game called Dead Ringer (mine) and then we played a game called Dutch Blitz. The YW president brought that game and it was really fun! The younger girls decorated Independence Day themed cupcakes and then they shared their cupcakes with us and played a game of Dead Ringer while we were finishing Dutch Blitz.

Younger class playing Dead Ringer with the 2nd counselor and their advisor

Some of my class with the YW president, getting ready to play another round of Dutch Blitz. (There were a couple more girls in my class there that evening but they had to leave before I took this photo.) 

That was certainly a long and busy day! I didn't sleep particularly well that night and I was awake when Frank got home at about 4:45.

Seth had YM camp from 9:00 to 5:00 on Wednesday. They met at the stake center where they played games, had a career fair (several men came to tell them about their jobs) and they got to take apart a bunch of old electronic items to see how they work. One of the other boy's mom drove them to and from the stake center so I didn't have to drive at all. Meanwhile, I went to breakfast with my friend Rebekah to celebrate our birthdays together (hers is July 8). Then I went to see my friend Wanda to take her the things she had asked me to buy. Turns out she didn't want some of the things I got and she needed / wanted some other things, so I will be seeing her again tomorrow probably. After that I went back to help one of my moving friends again for a few hours. This time I helped with some packing and cleaning. There were a couple of other women from the ward there helping too. After I got done there, I had a few hours to read and I took a short nap too before Seth got home from YM camp. Frank had to work again that night, but only for a couple of hours. (He got home around 11:30.) Right after he left, I went out on the deck to watch fireflies for a while. There were a lot of them...seems like the hotter it is, the more there are! While I was watching the fireflies, the deer showed up again! (Or maybe it was a different deer...who knows?) This time I watched it walk up the hill behind my house. It stood there for a little while but it wasn't there very long because some people came walking up from the river and they had an unleashed dog with them. I couldn't see or hear them yet, but the deer heard them and started to run away. It's amazing how fast they can go! It started running and then it took this great flying leap into the air and it was gone. Shortly after that, I saw the dog come tearing after it. It was really cool to watch the deer run like that, but I wish those people hadn't come along and scared it away. I read a bit that evening and finished reading The Indigo Girl. It was really good.

On Thursday Seth didn't have camp until 12:30, but it went until 10:00 pm. The morning was busy with laundry, vacuuming and sweeping. The camp on Thursday was held at a place called Bar-T, which has a pool, hiking trails, ropes courses, and so forth. I didn't have to drive again...another mom took them there and her husband (our bishop) brought them home. After Seth left for camp, I went shopping to get some things for us as well as to return some items for my friend Wanda and to get some more things she wants. That took longer than I thought so when I got home I barely had time to put everything away and to grab a snack (it was well past lunch time) before leaving again to go to a YW class presidency meeting. Our meeting was kind of long because we hadn't been able to meet for a long time but it was fun...I really do enjoy the girls in my class! They are great girls! I got home the same time that Frank did and we made dinner together and ate. It was really nice to have a quiet dinner without anyone complaining about what we were eating! We had a nice quiet evening too. I got some more chores done and read scriptures in peace. Seth arrived home around 10:30 so we read scriptures and went to bed.

Today I spent the morning working on the budget. Seth mowed the lawn and now he is at the carpool boys' house playing games for the next few hours. I have a YW presidency meeting starting in a few minutes. So as you can see, we have had a lot going on around here this week. We are all looking forward to having a vacation soon!