Weekly Review August 26 '22

 When I looked at the date yesterday, I realized that we are only 4 months away from Christmas...how can that be?? This week has felt long, but perhaps that is because it was our first full week of school, and Seth started Seminary this week too. We're not used to getting up so early yet!

I mentioned last week that I was going to a wedding reception. Frank met me there on his way home from work. It was not a "drop in" type of reception--they actually had a full sit down dinner. We ended up at a table with some friends from both our ward and our stake, and it was fun to visit. After dinner they had dancing. They did one thing I thought was fun...they asked all married couples to come to the dance floor. After a minute or so of dancing, they said "anyone who's been married less than 5 hours, sit down". That was the couple who had just got married, of course. Then they asked anyone who had been married less than a year to sit down and then proceeded from there, adding on a couple of years every time. Finally there was only one couple left, who had been married 51 years. They asked that couple to share some words of advice with the newly married couple. Here's a picture my friend Michelle (she's the YW president that I'm serving with) took at the wedding (not the reception). We were sitting together; she has to keep out of the sun so she had brought an umbrella:

Saturday was pretty busy. I got my hair cut in the morning. When I got home, we went to the store to buy a chromebook for Seth. The laptop he's been using is not working great and it's also pretty heavy for him to carry back and forth to school. The school system will rent him a chromebook, but it costs $60 / year to do that. Since Seth has 3 more years of school, that means we'll pay $180 in rental fees before we're done and since some chromebooks don't cost much more than that, we decided to buy him his own...then he can keep it! We also got a laptop for me because the laptop I've been using is starting to show signs of age. Believe it or not, the laptop we bought is the first brand new laptop I've ever had! All of the other laptops I've used over the years are ones that Frank picked up here and there from other people. We did buy a laptop at the store for me once, but even that one was not brand new because it had been used as a display (and therefore was less expensive). I'm still using my old laptop to write this post, though, because we haven't had a chance to fully set up the new one yet. 

That evening there was a post-FSY activity and dance for the youth at our stake center. We found out on Friday morning that each ward needed to provide a chaperone for the dance portion. Most of our youth leaders and parents were unavailable, so Frank and I ended up volunteering to go. (We didn't both have to go but I thought it would be more fun if we went together). We were assigned to sit on a couch at the end of one of the hallways to keep youth from wandering into the chapel or outside. It wasn't a bad gig...a lot of the other chaperones had to circlulate through the halls or walk around outside in the parking lot. We got to sit on a comfortable couch, inside where it was cooler. Before the dance, which was for multiple stakes, our stake had a dinner for the youth in our stake. Seth went to that and then stayed for the dance, although he didn't dance at all. They had a room with board / card games and another room with games like corn hole and giant jenga. He spent the night in those rooms with friends. I think it's nice that they have other options besides dancing (I would have enjoyed that a lot more than dancing when I was a teenager) but I hope someday he'll be interested in doing some dancing too.

Sunday was even busier than Saturday. Before church, I had a song practice because I'll be singing with a small group in sacrament meeting in a few weeks. The song is called "Shards of Glass" which is a reference to the china & glassware that early church members smashed and added to the plaster of the Kirtland Temple so that the outside walls would be shiny. The message of the song is that the Lord can take our meager, imperfect efforts and turn them into great things. It's a beautiful song and I am enjoying learning it. After that I had regular church meetings, of course. After church I just had time to come home and make lunch, eat, and do some advance preparations for dinner before leaving again to go to ward council. (Frank went too of course.) The YW president left Saturday morning to drive her two oldest daughters out to Utah since they are both attending BYU this semester, so I went to the meeting in her place. That meeting went longer than usual and by the time we got home it was time to put dinner in the oven. We had a little bit of down time while dinner cooked, but not a lot. The Elders came over for dinner and we enjoyed having them here. We just found out that morning that both of them were being transferred in a few days and sister missionaries were going to take their place. We'll miss the Elders, but I am excited to have Sisters here again! 

We had dinner a little early because at 6:00 we all had a meeting at the stake center...it was for all the Seminary students and their parents, just to go over information for this new year of Seminary. We also found out that day that our Seminary class was going to be bigger. Up until now, the kids in our ward have had their own class (along with a few kids from the Spanish ward who live in our ward boundaries). But this year they decided to have all the kids who go to TJ High School (Seth's high school) attend the same Seminary class as the kids in our ward. (Most of the kids in our ward go to Walkersville High School; Seth is one of only a few in our ward who go to TJ.) There are several kids in the Frederick Ward who attend TJ High School, so they are joining our Seminary class this year. Seth is actually the only youth in our ward attending TJ who attends Seminary regularly, so it's nice that he's not the only one going to his school from Seminary now. It's also nice that he is getting to know some of the other LDS kids at his school. We could have joined a carpool with the Frederick Ward kids, but since Seth needs to take his medicine every day in between Seminary and school and I know he will forget to take it if I just send it to Seminary with him, I will still be picking him up from Seminary every day to take him to school. We may occasionally take some of the other TJ kids with us, though. 

After the Seminary meeting, Frank and Seth went home but I stayed because there was a post-camp fireside for all the YW and YW leaders in the stake. They showed a slide show with pictures from camp and had a few leaders speak briefly, then had time for girls to share testimonies. It was really nice so I'm glad I went even though I was pretty tired by then. It was definitely a long day!! I went home and went to bed since we had to be up at 5:00 am the next morning. 

The rest of the week hasn't been as busy as the weekend was, but we've still had a few events. Since Frank has been leaving for work around 6:00 am every morning and Seminary starts at 6:10, he is now taking Seth to Seminary every morning before going to work. That is nice for me, since last year I usually took him to Seminary and then went back to pick him up and take him to school. It makes my morning routine easier to only make one trip! On Monday I went to lunch with my friend Sherrie. She was the 2nd counselor in the YW presidency until recently...she got released because she is going to be a temple worker and is assigned to work at the temple the same night as our activity night. I've missed her now that I don't see her and talk to her as frequently so we decided to go to lunch. It was nice to get caught up with her.

We had a combined YW activity on Tuesday evening...the younger class was in charge and they decided that they want to paint their nails while chatting about the first week of school. It was a fun and relaxing activity. Meanwhile, the boys were playing volleyball and eating bagels. 

On Wednesday we didn't have to go anywhere in the evening but we did get some unexpected visitors...the new sister missionaries stopped by to meet us. It was fun to get to know them a little bit. One of them has been out 15 months and the other one is brand new from the MTC. On Wednesday we also did some online searching and booked a place to stay in Brevard for Thanksgiving. Scott is coming with us and Jared & Jessie will likely come over too. Tanner & Darlee would like to come but they don't know Darlee's school schedule yet so we'll have to wait and see if that will work out. 

Last night I had book chat. We had a lively discussion about Patriots while enjoying fondue. Yum!! Now we are going to read a book called Ribbons of Scarlet, which is about several women during the French Revolution. 

Seth has had a friend from school / church come over after school three days this week. He is in another ward but goes to Seth's high school. His dad asked me if we'd be willing to let him come to our house for about an hour after school each day so that his dad doesn't have to make two trips to Frederick every day to pick up both this boy and his two younter sisters from their schools, which dismiss about an hour apart. I told him we'd try it...my only concern was that Seth needs to get his homework done, and having his friend here could be a distraction. This boy is a really nice boy and he and Seth get along well so other than that, I'm happy to have him come here. So far it has worked out fine although Seth hasn't had any homework yet so we'll see how it goes as we get farther into the school year. We decided to change our rules for screen time this school year. Last year Seth got 2 hours of screen time on school nights if he got his homework done. This year we decided not to have any screen time on school nights. (He gets plently of screen time on Fridays and Saturdays.) We made this decision because we feel like last year Seth would rush through his homework and not give it his best effort because he just wanted to finish so he could get his screen time. When I explained this to Seth, I was surprised that he agreed with me! I'm sure we'll hear complaints about it as the year goes by, but I think it's going to be a lot better this way.

This week I got to talk on the phone to Mom, Amy, Tanner, and Scott so that was nice. I've been listening to audio books a lot and just finished listening to the last book in a 6 book series. I started listening to a new book called Divine Signatures which is really uplifting; I like it a lot. 

The weather has changed and we are back to typical miserable hot and humid August weather. I don't have to go outside much, though, so it's not too bad. The sky was really beautiful this morning though, so I will finish up with a few pictures I took at the church (while waiting for Seth to get out of Seminary) and at home:

Weekly Review August 19 '22

 I'm going to a wedding in an hour...let's see if I can get this post written in that time. 

Last Friday evening I went to the "meet the newlyweds" event for my friend Rebekah's daughter and her husband. I got there early because I was helping. I helped set up and then stayed for the whole event to keep an eye on the food and replenish food items as needed. Then I helped clean up when it was over. They kept things pretty simple, so both the set up and clean up were pretty easy. A lot of people came, but they didn't eat as much as Rebekah thought they would, so I didn't really have to replenish anything and they had a lot of food leftover. I ended up bringing home a lot of the cookies that I made so we ate cookies all week! It was a nice evening, though. I enjoyed visiting with a lot of the people that came since most of them were from our ward, and it was a beautiful evening...not too hot and low humidity...so it was a nice evening to be outside.

On Saturday Frank and Seth got haircuts first thing in the morning. I kept busy all day getting caught up on a lot of little things like filling out an application for life insurance (through Frank's new employer) and going through a bunch of electric bills to figure out what we owe (our meter quit working so we got incorrect bills for several months; then we got two bills that are due a week apart which didn't seem right so I was trying to sort everything out before I called the power company to confirm the correct amount). Yes, lots of fun things like that! I think I read the book chat book a lot too. Frank was busy doing work for a client for several hours. He tried again to talk to them about finding someone else because he feels like they have too much work for him to do but they talked him out of it again. We'll see how long that lasts!

Sunday was really sweet because it was the rededication of the Washington, DC Temple. There were three sessions; the first one was broadcast to all the buildings in our stake. The other two were broadcast just to the stake center. We opted to go to the first session so we could go to our ward's building. In the first session, President Nelson spoke and read the dedicatory prayer. I loved watching him walk in and wave to the congregation! There was such a beautiful spirit when he came in, and throughout the entire session. My favorite part is always the song at the end when we sing "The Spirit of God". (This is the 5th temple dedication I've attended.) I asked Seth what he thought about it afterwards and he said "that was actually a really interesting meeting. It was really good." Frank was helping take down all the audiovisual equipment at the temple after the last session, so he was able to be in the temple for the last session. He said it felt amazing to be there...when Pres. Eyring read the dedicatory prayer, he said he could just feel a change spread throughout the entire building. I'm really glad he got the chance to experience that! We are so, so happy to have our temple back!! The first day we can sign up for appointments is not until August 31st though. I have an appointment for September 1st. 😀

I was pretty busy on Monday because besides the usual chores I also had a lot of phone calls to make...following up on a lot of those things I was doing on Saturday. (The power company was only one of the places I needed to call.) I also talked to Scott (he called me but I would have called him if he hadn't called me first...since it was his birthday) and to Amy. I read a lot that day and the next as well, and managed to finish Patriots for book chat. I actually really liked it, even though it wasn't an easy book to read. That evening we went to Back to School night for the CTC. It was also Back to School night for Seth's high school but they were at the same time so we had to choose which one to go to. Since Seth felt confident he could find his new classes at the high school, we opted to go to the CTC instead. He will spend half of each school day at the CTC doing his computer tech analyst class. We got some important information, so I'm glad that we went to that.

Tuesday was our last day of summer vacation, but I don't think we did anything too unusual, other than going that evening to look for a tool kit for Seth that he needs for his computer tech class. We went three places but didn't find what we were looking for. We ended up ordering one from Amazon.

Wednesday was the first day of school so our day started bright and early (but not as bright and early as it will start next week, when Seminary starts). When I got up, I happened to glance out the window and saw that a couple of deer were outside in the common area behind our house, so after making sure Seth was up & in the shower, I went out on the deck to watch them for a while. I discovered that there were 3 deer instead of 2, as I originally thought.

I watched them for a while, and then one of them moved down the hill so I couldn't see it anymore. But then a few minutes later, two more deer arrived:

 

And then much to my surprise, two more came! Some of the new arrivals were bucks; one had pretty large horns (it's hard to see because I'm not zoomed in but you can actually see all of the deer in this photo, including the one that had moved down the hill, for a total of 7:

Meanwhile, a nice sunrise was happening too:

So that was kind of a magical way to start out the day! After taking all those photos of deer, I almost forgot to take a photo of Seth on his first day of 10th grade, but thankfully I remembered at the last minute:

The last few days there hasn't been much going on...we're just adjusting to our new schedule, mostly. I feel like the days go by really fast while Seth is gone! I've been busy with chores and I've been listening a lot to an audio book. We've been checking on some cats for some of our neighbors who are out of town too, so we've been doing that every evening all week. I was really grumpy the first day of school because it took so long to read things and sign them and fill out all the various paperwork. Seth didn't have any homework...why should I have so much "homework" to do???

One fun thing about school starting is that Frederick County Public Schools put together a trailer for a "mock" motion picture. I thought it was kind of clever and funny. Here's a link if you want to watch it:

Mock Movie Trailer

 We've had some really nice weather this week...some rain, lower humidity, and daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s. At night, it has cooled down nicely. Today it is a bit hotter and it's supposed to get really hot again but August is usually our most miserable month, so it's been really lovely to have a break from the heat and humidity. 

So did I finish this post before I had to leave for the wedding? No, I didn't but I got it all done except for the last 2 paragraphs. The wedding was for a guy who grew up in our ward. He and Scott are good friends; he's a year older than Scott. We bought our house from his family so we have been close to his family all these years. The wedding was lovely and we'll be going to the reception in a few hours. They are having their temple sealing tomorrow. 

That's all the news from us this week.

Weekly Review August 12 '22

 This has been our last full week of summer vacation, but I think I'm in denial. It's just hard to believe that vacation is almost over...it went by so fast this year! We're mostly back into our routine and I've been sleeping a lot better for the most part (but not last night). Most mornings I have been waking up when Frank gets up (around 5:00) and not going back to sleep, but that's good since next week we'll have to start getting up around that time anyway. 

We kept fairly busy this week with different events and all the usual work that needs to be done. As usual, I can't remember much about last week end, except for Sunday. Besides the regular church meetings, I also went to Ward Council because the YW president was at a family baby blessing. That evening our ward had a "break the fast potluck". That was pretty fun...we had a good turnout, the food was good, and we enjoyed visiting with some of the ward members.

On Monday I went to lunch with 4 other friends from my ward. It was good to get caught up with them! Seth and I both helped with a community event on Tuesday called "Stuff the Bus". Throughout the summer, this organization collects donated school supplies and then there's a day that families who need help can come get supplies for free. Our stake has been helping provide volunteers for this event for a number of years and our stake center is also the distribution site. Seth and I did a 3 hour shift, acting as escorts for families that came in to pick up supplies. Seth did a good job so I'm glad I signed him up...I think it's good for him to have opportunities to serve. (It's good for me too!)

Seth went to play with some friends on Wednesday afternoon for a few hours. Frank helped set up televisions at the temple in preparation for the dedication (this Sunday!! 😃😄) so he went right from work to the temple and didn't get home until close to 9:00 pm. Meanwhile, Seth and I went to the combined YM / YW activity, which was a nerf gun war / capture the flag game. We had a little bit of a hiccup when we got to the church and realized that there had been a miscommunication with the other ward...we change activity nights with them every school year and we thought we were switching starting next week but they thought we were switching at the beginning of August so they were there too! We worked it out, though...they told us which rooms they needed and we stayed out of their rooms and avoided shooting nerf guns at them! And actually, the Deacons in the other ward decided they wanted to join us for our activity so we had a few extra boys which was nice. I was in charge of hiding the "flag" (a green bandana) and then the two teams tried to be the first to find it and return it to the gym, without getting caught (shot with a nerf gun bullet) by someone on the other team. Anyone who got "shot" in the process of the game had to come to the gym where I was waiting and count to 100 or answer a question I gave them correctly before returning to the game. They did not provide me a list of questions, so I kept pretty busy trying to think up new questions to ask! We played 3 rounds and everyone had a great time. I think I found some good hiding places, too. The best one (took everyone the longest to find it) was the inside of the microwave in the kitchen! (In the photo, I'm on the end, holding up the green bandana "flag".) 

Yesterday we met some other families in our ward at a park. This park has a really large wooden slide. 

That was a lot of fun for all the kids, and I enjoyed visiting with the other women who came. The drive there and back was beautiful, too! Seth's friend Lyndon came home with us aftewards so they could play and he stayed until dinner time. We stopped on our way home to get some milkshakes too. That evening, one of my ministering sisters came to visit me. 

That brings us to today...so far I have worked on the budget and made some cookies to take to an event this evening. My friend Rebekah's daughter got married in December and she and her husband are here visiting. They didn't have a reception or openhouse out here when they got married, so they are having a get together this evening at a park so that people here can meet her husband. I'm planning to make another batch of cookies after I finish this post. 

In between all of those things plus regular household chores, I have been trying to read the book for book chat (Patriots) as much as possible. I've made some progress and am now on page 365 out of 612. I'm enjoying it, but it just takes a lot of time to read. I feel like it takes me hours to get through 30 pages. I think it's because there is a lot of detail, and my detail oriented brain is trying to take it all in! 

We've had really hot and humid weather since we got home from Utah, but today it is starting to cool down a little bit (80s instead of high 90s) and it looks like it's going to stay that way for a while, so that's nice. We're even going to have a few days with highs in the 70s next week, which is crazy for this time of year! We had rain on Wednesday and a little more rain last night.  

I finished another color by number this week, so I'll finish with a photo of that.

Weekly Reviews July 22, 29, & Aug 5 '22

 Hopefully this won't be a monster post, but since I have three weeks to cover it will probably be pretty long. I have completely forgotten what we did on some of the days, though, so that will help. On Saturday, July 16th my very good friend Jeanine came to visit. I met her shortly after we moved to Maryland and she and I bonded early on because we had little boys the same age. Her two oldest are the same ages as Scott and Tanner, and she was expecting her third boy at the time. (Jared was 18 months old then.) Her family moved to another ward in our stake a few years later and then 10 years ago she and her husband separated and her family moved to California. She has since remarried. But through all those years, our boys stayed friends and she and I have kept in close touch. Jeanine was traveling with her middle son, Kalvin (same age as Tanner) and Kalvin's wife Jessica and baby son Lukas. I haven't held a baby in so long, so it was fun to have one stay at our house! Jeanine took this photo of me with Lukas, but did I think to take any photos with her? No, I did not. 😢

Jeanine and I hadn't seen each other in person for 10 years, but we just picked up where we left off and it seemed totally natural to have her there and to be talking to her again! I just enjoyed visiting with her all day long. They spent the night with us so we got lots of visiting time that day. It was soooo great to see her again!!

Sunday morning the 17th we had to say our goodbyes. They were heading to Westminster to go to church and Frank had bishopric meeting early and I had choir practice so the morning was pretty rushed. The choir sang in church that day, and I think it went fairly well. Frank and I both had a meeting that afternoon because the YW presidency and the Bishopric met together to discuss some issues and do some planning. We mostly discussed whether or not we should continue to have 3 YW classes or combine into 2 classes. We left the meeting thinking that we were combining into 2 classes, but none of us in the YW presidency felt good about that, so we have decided to continue with 3 classes until at least the end of this year. It's the less convenient choice for us, but we feel it will be better for the girls. 

Monday the 18th was busy because we were getting ready for our trip and Seth had an orthodontist appointment and I had an appointment to get my hair done. The orthodontist said Seth's teeth look good and he should get his braces off by November at the latest. I ended up sticking around the hair salon a while longer than anticipated because just as I was getting done a big storm blew in and while I was trying to pay, the power went out! It came back on in a few minutes and I finished my transaction but stayed a while longer waiting for the rain to slow down. Otherwise, I would have gotten soaked!! 

Frank was able to work from home on Tuesday the 19th and I stayed busy all day with last minute packing and other preparations for our trip. Our flight was leaving at 7:40 that evening so we left for the airport around 4:30. I got a thorough pat down going through security, but we still made it to our gate in plenty of time and had time to get some dinner too. We boarded our flight on time but then had some delays and ended up leaving Baltimore about 30 minutes late. That caused us some concern since our layover in Phoenix was only 1 hour, but somehow they made up for the lost time in flight and we arrived in Phoenix at the time we were supposed to arrive. We had quite a walk to our next gate and then they were waiting on a crew member to arrive, so we had plenty of time before we had to board. We arrived in Phoenix at 9:30 pm (12:30 am, Maryland time) and it was still over 100 degrees there. None of us had slept much on the flight from Baltimore. Two guys in front of us were playing a video game on their tablet for the entire trip, and for some reason they didn't use headphones and they had the sound turned up really loud...so annoying!! The flight to Phoenix was completely full but our flight to Salt Lake City had only 50 people on it, so we really got to spread out which was nice. That flight was short, though, so I didn't even try to sleep. Seth did fall asleep and we had to wake him up when we landed in Salt Lake City. Scott was a real sport to come pick us up at 1:00 am! We went to Mom's house and went to bed.

We woke up around 8:00 am and I had a text from Amy letting me know that Nate had tested positive for Covid-19 the previous evening. That wasn't great news, since we wanted to see them, of course. We spent that day recuperating from our flight and visiting with Mom. That evening we had dinner with some Maryland friends who moved to Utah last summer, the McClatchies. They live in Heber now so we enjoyed a beautiful drive up Provo Canyon to get to their house. Scott and Tanner came with us also. The youngest McClatchie daughter had just been exposed to Covid, so we ate outside as a precaution. It was so pleasant, though...no humidity!!...so we enjoyed being outside, even though it actually rained lightly for a few minutes. Afterwards, there was a rainbow:

We had a really nice evening visiting and getting caught up with their family.

Thursday the 21st was also a quiet day which was nice because the rest of our trip was pretty busy. Amy tested positive for Covid that morning, but I was able to go visit with her for a few hours--we sat in her backyard, more than 6 feet apart, so we could talk. We met Scott's friend, Lexie, that day too. They have been spending a lot of time together but she insists that they are not dating, so we'll see what happens with that. She's a really nice girl, though.

On Friday morning, the 22nd, we all went to Waffle Love for breakfast. That included Mom, Amanda, and Lexie. We spent that day visiting and doing laundry. Lexie came back to Mom's house and hung out all day, although both she and Scott were doing some work remotely. That evening, Scott had invited a bunch of his friends to come over so we could meet them and he grilled hamburgers for all of us for dinner. Tanner and Darlee came over too. It was a fun but noisy group!

There was a brief rain shower that evening and another rainbow (actually, a double rainbow):

We spent most of Saturday the 23rd at Lagoon. Scott, Tanner and Darlee came with us too. It was really hot that day so it wasn't the best day to be walking around an amusement park but we mostly had fun. We were all ready to leave by about 3:30, though! Seth is anxious about amusement park rides so we could barely get him to go on anything and I will not do anything with a really steep drop but Scott, Tanner, Darlee, and Frank were game to go on all the big stuff. However, I'm the only one who doesn't get motion sick on spinning things (I actually love spinning rides!!) so I went on the scrambler alone. Sadly, I had to forego the Tilt-a-Whirl because it is no fun to ride that one alone...you need a couple of people with you, leaning in the correct direction to really make it spin fast!

You can't tell since they're so far away, but Frank, Scott, Tanner, and Darlee are in that roller coaster car. I am super impressed that they went on this ride...it looked terrifying to me!!

Lunch time:

One of the few rides Seth would go on...Carousels are pretty tame!:

Tanner and Seth got pretty wet on this ride:

Scott bribed Seth into going on this roller coaster and he liked it and agreed to go on it again. Darlee and I are in the seat in front of Tanner and Seth; Scott is further back so he's not visible in this photo:

Me riding the scrambler alone:

Here we all are on the roller coaster (except Frank)...Scott is barely visible, in the last car at the right side of the photo. 

We went on a lot of other rides, but didn't get photos. We finished up with ice cream. I got a soft serve vanilla cone and the ice cream was so soft that it slid right off the cone onto my hand before I even left the concession window!! They gave me another one, in a cup this time! That evening someone nearby was shooting off fireworks so I went outside to watch for a while. There were fireworks for a couple of evenings, because of the Pioneer Day holiday. I enjoyed seeing those since we had to miss the 4th of July fireworks this year.

We spent most of Sunday the 24th at Tim & Rachelle's house. First we all went to church at their ward because Micah had just returned from his mission and he was speaking in Sacrament meeting. There were two youth speakers and another just returned missionary speaking besides Micah, and all of the talks were excellent. After the meeting, we went to Tim's house for lunch. They had sub sandwiches, fruit, chips, cookies, and lots of other snacks. We enjoyed visiting with them and lots of other family members who were there. Zane was getting ordained an Elder late that afternoon, so we stayed to participate in that. After we went back to Mom's house, Shellie came over for a visit. We didn't get to see the rest of her family, but we are glad we got to visit with her.

On Monday the 25th we headed up to Boise, Idaho to see Erick & Liz and Erin & Dan & family. Mom considered going with us, but she was feeling too tired to go. Scott did go with us (actually we took his car and he did most of the driving), and we enjoyed spending that extra time with him. We got to Erick's house around 4:00 pm, got settled, and then went to Erin & Dan's house for dinner. Seth was excited to ride in Erick's car with him:

Erin and Dan have a pizza oven, and Erin had all the fixings for homemade pizzas ready for us, plus a dessert pizza too. Her kids are so cute, and I enjoyed reading to Harvey for a bit. Erin has a very large and beautiful vegetable and flower garden. After dinner we went to a local ice cream place that some of Erin and Dan's friends own. I wasn't very hungry, but the ice cream was really good. Frank and I got a dish that was 5 small scoops of ice cream...that way we were able to try out 5 of their flavors without getting too much ice cream. We tried Mordor chocolate (The chocolate to rule them all!), snickerdoodle, banana cream pie, rocky road, and something else that I can't remember now. The adutls sat at a regular table, but all the "kids" (that includes Scott) sat at a table that had swings for seats:

 After ice cream, we went back to Erick & Liz's house and went swimming in their pool and sat in the hot tub under the stars. 

We spent Tuesday the 26th exploring Boise a bit. First we went to a park with the Boise River running through it:

(Liz and Frank were the only ones brave enough to wade in that cold water!)

Then we went to an Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. It was really nice, with water features, walls with lots of quotes, and an outdoor classroom space.

After lunch at a restaurant called The Funky Taco and a stop at a chocolate shop to get some yummy chocolate, we drove to the Meridian Temple grounds. The temple and it's grounds are really beautiful!!

After all those adventrues, we headed back to Erick & Liz's house for more swimming and some dinner. Erick had made pork in his smoker and Liz made some yummy side dishes and a lemon blueberry cake. Erin, Dan and kids joined us too.

We also played a game called Get Wild, which was fun but also frustrating because I never came close to winning! (There is very little skill involved with this game, it's mostly luck.)

We headed back to Utah on Wednesday morning (the 27th) after a delicious German pancake breakfast and another short game of Get Wild. After dinner with Mom, Frank and I went over to Tim & Rachelle's house to visit with them for a while. They also gave us some homemade peach ice cream that Tim had made...it was really good!

Thursday the 28th was our last day in Utah. I met my friend Paula for lunch and then we all went to Tanner & Darlee's house to visit them and to meet their kitten, Penny. 

Penny is really cute and fairly friendly! We all went to the BYU creamery to get some chocolate or cookies and cream milk (or both). We said goodbye to Tanner & Darlee and headed back to Mom's house for dinner and visiting with Amy, who came to see us that evening. It was a bummer that we didn't get to see her more and we didn't get to see any of her family but I'm glad we got to visit with her that evening. 

We tried to go to bed early because our flight home was leaving at 5:00 am. Even so, we only got about 4 hours of sleep. Scott was such a good sport (again!) and took us to the airport at that terribly early hour. Our flight home was kind of ridiculous...we flew to Chicago, then the Myrtle Beach SC, and then home. (Basically we flew right over Maryland on our way to Myrtle Beach!). We had a plane change in Chicago but in Myrtle Beach there was only a short stop. We didn't plan to get off the plane but then our flight was delayed an hour (because of bad weather) so they told us we had to get off. (We were able to leave our luggage on the plane, though, to save our seats). They had actually already started boarding the flight so those people had to get back off too. Because of the delay, we decided to get some food. The Baltimore airport has a long line of rocking chairs at one of their windows. We were amused to discover that the Myrtle Beach airport has brightly colored Andirondack chairs instead:

Because of the connection, stop, and delay (plus a two hour time change), we didn't land in Baltimore until about 4:30 pm, in spite of leaving Utah at 5:00 am. It was a long day of traveling, although we all slept at least a little bit on the plane rides. We drove home and dropped off all our luggage and then went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Jared & Jessie had come to Maryland for the weekend so Jared met us at the restaurant to visit with us (and he ate with us too). After dinner, we went home, unpacked, and went to bed. 

It's been good to be back home again although we miss all the Utah and Idaho folks. On Saturday we woke up late since we were exhausted and still on Utah time. Frank had a lot of work to do for a client. I spent most of the day planning meals and took a trip to the store to get some groceries. That evening, Seth and I went to the Hatch's house for dinner and swimming (Frank was still getting work done). It was great to see Jared and Jessie, as well as the rest of the Hatch family.

On Sunday the 31st Frank had a short bishopric meeting but no other meetings because our poor bishop was dealing with another kidney stone. Since it was a 5th Sunday, all the adults met together and all the youth met together but I was asked to go to the meeting with the adults. Frank helped with the technology for the youth meeting, so he went to that meeting. Jared & Jessie came over for dinner that evening. We also played Banagrams and Jessie opened her birthday presents from us (her birthday was the following day). 

The evening ended too soon, since Jared & Jessie needed to head back to North Carolina. We're so glad we got to see them this time, though!!

This week has been a lot quieter so there's not a lot to write about. We've mostly been trying to get back on Eastern time and adjusting back to our regular routine. I had a YW presidency meeting on Tuesday morning and went to lunch with my friend Rebekah on Wednesday. We had a combined YW activity on Wednesday evening...my class was in charge. We had a summer reading activity...we asked each person to bring a book they've read this summer (or a favorite they've read in the past) and to be prepared to tell a little bit about the book and tell why they like it. We also asked each person to bring a snack to share. A lot of people are out of town right now and a few other girls are at FSY, plus Covid is going around yet again so only 3 girls were able to come, but we had 4 leaders there too so it was a nice group and we had a fun time. 

I have not been sleeping well at all since getting home...most nights I have a hard time going to sleep at all. Other nights I wake up in the middle of the night and lie awake for hours. Last night I fell asleep really late but still woke up when Frank got up at 5:00 am. Hopefully my mixed up body will figure out what time zone I am in soon! 

I've been reading the book for book chat in my spare time, but not making a lot of progress. It is interesting, but not incredibly compelling so I have a hard time being motivated to pick it up. It's also very long!! (More than 600 pages.) I decided before we left for Utah that it was worth spending $15 to get a digital copy so I wouldn't have to take a large book in my backpack, so I returned the library copy before we left. I did read it a little bit on the plane rides, but not much. I've made more progress since returning home, but I need to pick up the pace if I'm going to finish it in time.

I decided to try something new with meals this week...I'm making double what we need for dinner each evening so that there are leftovers for the next day's lunch. I am liking that a lot better than making dinner and then making lunch for the next day. (I have to make lunch ahead of time so it's ready for Frank to take to work with him.) I'm not sure why I didn't think of this idea sooner...perhaps because Frank really doesn't like to eat the same thing for lunch as he ate for dinner the night before. (I, on the other hand, love to eat leftovers for lunch.) Frank says he hasn't minded doing that this week though, so I am planning to continue doing it this way. It is much easier for me. 

That brings you up to date on us, I think. We are so glad we got to see a lot of you. We're praying for all of you who are going through difficult things, and will include you in our fast this Sunday. Love you all!!