Weekly Review December 30 '22

This will be my last post for 2022. This year went by so fast! 

 When I left off last week, I was planning to make some cookies after dinner. I did do that, and Seth and Frank helped me decorate the cookies:

I'm going to make fewer cookies next year, though, because I'm the only one eating them, for the most part. There are still a lot left and since it's been a week, they aren't going to be good much longer. The cookies took a while to decorate, so we got to bed kind of late.

Saturday morning I had choir practice. It was super cold...wind chill below zero...but I didn't have to be outside for very long so it was okay. The choir director gave us Christmas treats when we were done. The rest of the day I was busy preparing our Christmas Eve dinner. Frank helped me quite a bit. We invited Jared & Jessie and the sister missionaries over for dinner. One of the sisters serving in our ward went home last week. It wasn't a regular transfer, but they sent home all the missionaries who were scheduled to go home at the next transfer so that they could be home for Christmas. The other sister serving in our ward was put in a threesome with two other sisters whose companions had also gone home for Christmas and they were covering three different areas. (They all got new companions this week, since this week was the regular transfer.) Anyway, this meant that we had 3 sister missionaries come over for dinner...two of whom we had never met before. But it turns out that one of them is from Cedar Hills, Utah and we discovered that her older sister and Emily are best friends! So that was pretty cool. We had a yummy dinner and visited for a long time...we felt instantly comfortable with all of the sisters and felt like we had known them forever! After dinner we read about the birth of the Savior in Matthew, Luke, and 3rd Nephi. Then everyone got to open a present. The sisters were really surprised when they each got a present too! (They got aloe infused socks and Maryland flag lanyards, which they were really happy about. We also sent home a jar of locally made jelly with each of them.) Jared & Jessie were pretty tired and went home even before the Sisters did. It was a really beautiful and pleasant evening, though.

We had church at 9:00 am on Sunday so we decided before hand that we would wait until after church to open all the presents. Seth must be growing up, because he was just fine with that!! (He also wasn't going crazy on Christmas Eve, waiting to open one present, as he has done in the past.) Our sacrament meeting was mostly musical numbers, with just a few people saying a few words to introduce each musical number. It was really nice. The choir sang last, and I think it went okay. I actually really love it when Christmas falls on a Sunday. There was something extra special about taking the sacrament on Christmas...I can't put into words what I felt, but it was sweet. Then after the meeting ended, everyone was hugging each other and wishing each other Merry Christmas. I loved getting to spend some of Christmas day with our ward family! 

Jared & Jessie came over to spend Christmas morning with us; they got to our house a few minutes before we got back from church, so they were waiting for us. We changed into comfortable clothes (Seth just put his pajamas back on) and then we opened presents. Everyone seemed to be happy with what they got. I don't feel like I purchased a lot this year, but there was a pretty big pile under the tree!

The boys have started doing a sibling gift exchange...this year, Scott gave to Jared and this is what he sent him.

Seth and Frank opening Santa gifts:

I managed to capture Jessie looking VERY surprised by the gift we got her! (it's a record player):

Jared opening a gift from us:

Seth's gift from Grandma:

Jared examining his gift from Jessie:

Seth likes these new socks:

Frank checking out a gift from me:

No one took any pictures but me, so I'm not in any of them. (As usual.)  But here is a photo I took of all my loot (because the record keeping part of me has to keep track of these things!):

 

Those metal luminaries I got look really awesome with candles inside:

Jared & Jessie stayed until about 1:30; her family was actually waiting to open gifts until they got back! We played the game that Tim & Rachelle sent us for Christmas (Get Wild) and we also played the new game that I got (Dutch Blitz). We ate cinnamon rolls for "2nd breakfast" (we had some eggs before church) and the rest of the day we ate leftovers from the day before, along with some pizza and lots of treats. After Jared & Jessie left, we just relaxed the rest of the day...reading new books and things like that. It was quiet but restful! A very nice Christmas!

On Monday we needed to go to the store. When we went out to start my car, it wouldn't start. It wouldn't even turn over, so we thought is was probably the battery. This was a concern because we were planning to leave for NC on Tuesday morning and were planning to take my car, because it has more room (the main purpose of the trip was to get a load of Jared & Jessie's stuff and bring it back up here for them). We took Frank's car to the store instead and one of the things we got was some jumper cables. When we got back, Frank jumped my car and it started. He drove it around for a while and then decided to take it to Auto Zone to get the battery checked. It's a good thing he did that because the battery was bad, so it would not have started the next time we tried without jumping it again. So he bought a new battery and had it installed before coming back home. 

We thought that was the end of our car troubles, but it wasn't. On Tuesday morning we loaded up the car and headed out, but we stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank. When we got to the gas station, Frank noticed a warning light had come on. We looked it up and it meant that something was wrong with the emissions system. The book said the vehicle was drivable, but not for long distances because doing that would damage the catalytic converter. So we went back home and moved everything over to Frank's car and took his car instead, which meant we had less room (but got better gas mileage). Jared was driving his father in law's pick up truck and Jessie drove her mom's car (because it has more space than Jared & Jessie's car) so fortunately between the three cars we ended up having enough room for all their stuff. We all left at different times, but were close enough together that we were all able to meet up to eat lunch together along the way. Seth was sitting in the back seat of our car and he started feeling car sick, so when we stopped for lunch Jared offered to have Seth ride with him the rest of the way. This helped Seth feel better and I'm sure he enjoyed having a chance to spend time with Jared also. When we got to Cary, Frank and I went to our hotel to check in first and then we met Jared, Jessie, and Seth at Jared & Jessie's apartment. They had actually done most of the packing already (before they left NC for Christmas). Jessie continued to pack things while we did some cleaning and Frank and Seth also went to pick up some dinner for all of us. Jared was busy taking some things that needed to be mailed to the UPS store and he was also communicating with a couple of people who were interested in buying some of their furniture. We went back to the hotel around 9:00 to get some rest.

I didn't sleep very well that night, unfortunately, but I did get a short nap in the car the next afternoon. In the morning we went back to Jared & Jessie's apartment and loaded up our car with as much as it could hold. I was actually surprised how much we managed to get into our little Prius! I offered to sit in the back seat so that Seth wouldn't get carsick again, plus he is a lot taller than me so he would have been pretty cramped sitting behind Frank and surronded by stuff. Seth took this photo of me sitting in the back from his place in the front seat:

You can kind of get an idea of how full the car was! I took a few more photos from my vantage point:

There were two camp chairs on top of the bin next to me that wanted to roll into my lap every time we turned right! Then at one point Frank had to stop suddenly and one of them went flying into the front seat! After that happened, I moved them around a bit and managed to wedge them into some spots so that they didn't move anymore. We hit a lot of slow traffic going down to NC, but the trip back went much quicker until we got to Spotsylvania, Virginia. Then we were in stop and go traffic for an hour. We sped up a little when we got to DC and the HOV lane but by then it was close to rush hour so we slowed down a bit again. It wasn't too bad, though. We made it to the Hatch's house by shortly after 4:00 pm. They helped us unload, and were pretty impressed by how much stuff we had fit in our car!

We got home and unpacked our one little suitcase that we all had shared, and then Frank and I went out for dinner. (Seth preferred to stay home and make his own dinner). We were glad to be back home. Jared and Jessie stayed an extra night in NC because Jared had a follow up appointment with his surgeon on Thursday morning. They went to his appointment and then loaded up their vehicles and did some final cleaning. Everyone who purchased their various pieces of furniture came to pick them up too. Jessie left about an hour before Jared, but they both managed to make it back to Maryland by early evening. Jared was feeling pretty wiped out by then, so I think he has been just recuperating today.

Yesterday was busy for us, getting caught up on things like laundry, cleaning, and meal planning after being gone for most of two days. We took my car into the dealer to get it checked yesterday morning...since Frank is not working this week we were able to just leave it there. They don't have any appointments available until Tuesday but said they would try to squeeze it in sooner if we left it there. They haven't been able to get to it yet, though, and since it's now Friday evening I'm afraid they probably won't get to it until Tuesday. (Unless they are open tomorrow and / or Monday, but it's kind of doubtful with the holiday.) We also went to Costco yesterday because we had a reward certificate we needed to spend before the end of the year. We mostly got canned meat for food storage purposes.

Today I had an eye doctor appointment. I re-ordered my contact lenses a few weeks ago but then my order was cancelled because the contact lens I needed for my right eye has been discontinued. I could have had the doctor write a new prescription for a different brand, but since it had been 15 months since I last had my eyes checked, I decided to get my eyes checked again. It's a good thing I did, because the prescription for my right eye has changed quite a bit and it's changed a little bit for my left eye as well. So I ended up ordering new lenses for my glasses and I have some trial contacts to try and will go back next week for a follow up. The eye doctor says that my right eye is looking just a little cloudy which means I am probably beginning to get a cataract in that eye. How fun! For now, it's just something to watch though.

In between the traveling and all the regular chores, I have been working on the certification test for VITA. Last week I took and passed the two smaller tests (standards of conduct test and intake & quality review test). They just have 10 questions each and they are really easy...mostly just common sense stuff! When I took those tests, I also printed up a copy of the tax law certification test so that I could start working on it. I've been working on it whenever I get a chance and I'm making progress. There are nine tax scenarios and I have completed seven of them. The last three scenarios take more time because I have to actually take all the information and put it into the tax software in order to get the answers to the questions. I started working on the 8th scenario this morning but haven't had a chance to get back to it yet. All the previous years that I have done this volunteer work, I have gone through the entire course before attempting to take the tests. This year I haven't had time to do that but I decided that I would try to take the test without going through the course first because I'm a lot more familiar with it now. The test is open book and not timed...they actually are testing to see if you can find the correct answers because there's no way anyone could memorize everything!! So I decided to see if I can find the answers without reviewing everything first. So far it has gone well and I feel like I am actually remembering a lot of the material. For a lot of the questions, I have been pretty sure I knew the right answer before I looked it up, and as I have looked things up I have confirmed that the answer I would have chosen was the correct answer. That's pretty encouraging! I'm hoping to finish the test in the next few days and I do plan to spend some time in January reviewing some of the course to refresh my memory before the tax season starts, but I don't think I'll have to go through it as thoroughly as I have done in the past.

That's all the news I can think of to share this week. Happy New Year to everyone!!

Weekly Review December 23 '22

 Brrrrrr!!! It is so cold right now. It is 16 degrees, but very windy so it feels like -1 degrees. I know it's a lot worse in other parts of the country, but that is really cold for this part of the country. 

We are on the mend and consequently we had a lot more going on this week than last week. Last Saturday I was able to help with the sewing class. I think it went really well...I helped one girl cut out the pieces for her skirt because she missed the last class while other women helped the rest of the girls start sewing their skirts. The girls are doing a good job and I think many of them will finish early (we have two more classes scheduled). I also got the kitchen floor swept & mopped for the first time in a month which was great (between sickness and traveling I hadn't had a chance to do it in a while). I was pretty tired after doing those things so I spent the evening sitting down...but I was still productive. I sort of watched the BYU bowl game while I addressed all the Christmas cards. We're glad BYU pulled off a win, and the new quarterback looks pretty good too.

Frank started coughing a lot on Friday and he had a really terrible cough on Saturday so he decided he'd better stay home from church on Sunday. He continued to cough a lot on Sunday (he could barely talk without coughing) and early this week but his cough has finally diminished. He was able to work from home on Monday and Tuesday and didn't go back to the office until Wednesday. 

Seth and I did go to church (wearing masks), and I went to choir practice too but Seth didn't help with the Sacrament and we didn't stay for the 2nd hour. We were trying to minimize our contact with other people, plus I was pretty tired after the first hour ended. I came home and took a 2 1/2 hour nap!! We were supposed to go caroling with the rest of the Ward Council members and their families but we didn't do that either. 

On Monday I was feeling mostly back to normal and I had a very busy day with lots of errands. I'm still not sure how I managed to get so much done! Besides the regular grocery shopping, laundry, and vacuuming, I also went to the post office to mail a package (long wait), returned a library book, went to a local store to get some gifts for the sister missionaries who will be at our house on Christmas Eve, went to another place looking for gifts, made copies of the Christmas letter, wrapped some gifts, and got all the Christmas cards ready to mail (mostly that meant folding the Christmas letter and adding it to all the envelopes). We were getting ready to have family night when Jared texted us to say they and the Hatch family were going to downtown Frederick to walk around for a while and we could meet them there if we wanted. (Jared & Jessie arrived here on Sunday.) We decided to do that for family night. We also stopped on the way at the post office to drop off all the Christmas cards. In downtown Frederick at Carroll Creek Park this time of year there are a bunch of small decorated boats. We saw those, and then walked around looking at the shops and more lights for a while. It was really cold, so we didn't stay out very long. It was nice to see Jared & Jessie and to visit with the Hatch family a bit also.

On Tuesday I wasn't feeling so great (maybe because I did too much on Monday!!) I got the regular chores done but because I had a sore throat, headache, and some congestion, I decided not to attend the YW activity that evening. I was really sorry to miss it, but I really needed some rest and I was also worried about getting other people sick (even though I should have been past the contagious stage by then). My class was in charge of the activity but I had already got everything ready so it was easy to pass it off to the class president. For the activity, we had a "Secret Santa" gift exchange. About a week and a half earlier, we had each drawn the name of one other person in YW (either a YW or a leader). We were supposed to secretly contact a friend or family member of that person and get some information about that person that we would share with everyone else. We were also supposed to bring a wrapped gift for that person to give them at the activity. So basically, everyone had someone else do a mini spotlight on them and everyone got a gift. As I said, I was sorry to miss it!! I hear it went really well. I sent the gift that I had prepared with Frank; I sent the refreshments I had purchased with him too. The YW who drew my name wanted to give my gift to me in person, so she stopped by yesterday to give it to me. She is very artistic, and she had purchased a dozen little glass ornaments and had painted flowers on them. Isn't that sweet?! Here are a few of them on our tree:

The YM played a game that was a combination basketball / Nerf gun war. Some of the YM and YW and leaders were not able to attend that night (besides me) because a number of members of our bishop's family and one of the YW president's kids all tested positive for Covid that morning. Ugh!! It's going around yet again. I don't think any of them caught Covid from us, though, because we hadn't had any close contact with any of them since before we tested positive for Covid. (Plus they are 2 weeks behind us, so it seems like they would have come down with it sooner if they had caught it from us.) I feel really bad for them...it was bad enough for us to come down with it a couple of weeks before Christmas. Less than a week before would be the worst!!

Anyway, I didn't mention yet that Jared came over for a while on Tuesday and hung out with me while I did chores (and he helped a little bit). Jessie got a new job that starts in January but she went in for training that day, so he dropped her off and then came over here while she was at her training. When she finished (around lunch time) he picked her up and they came back here for a few hours to visit some more. 

I was feeling better on Wednesday (although I still have a sore throat every morning!!) I made fudge that day and also made the peanut butter balls for buckeyes (but we didn't dip them until yesterday). That evening we went to the temple to see the lights. We were originally going to go on Thursday evening but there was lots of rain in the forecast for that evening so we decided to go Wednesday instead. I'm glad we did because it was definitely raining cats and dogs on Thursday evening! We invited Jared & Jessie to come too. Frank had gone to work that day so Seth, Jared, Jessie and I drove down together and met Frank at the temple. We saw the lights, a display of international nativity sets, and checked out the Light the World giving machine. The lights were so beautiful!! I kept taking pictures but I've decided the camera on my phone just isn't that good. Here are a bunch of them anyway though:

I took a lot of pictures of the nativity sets too. Here are a few of my favorites:

It was not very cold that evening, which was really nice. After we finished at the temple, we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Frank and I both started getting back our senses of taste and smell early in the week and by Wednesday we could really taste again, and that Mexican food tasted like the best food I have ever eaten!! 😂

I had an appointment at the temple on Thursday but I wasn't sure if it was really going to happen. There was snow / freezing rain predicted for Thursday morning so I wasn't sure if school would be delayed or cancelled or if the temple would open late also. The forecast was for snow and freezing rain in the early morning hours and then turning to regular rain by midmorning. When we woke up around 5:00 am we found out they had decided to have a 2 hour delay, but were going to reevaluate at 7:00. At 5:00 nothing was happening yet but it was still supposed to be coming. I kept a close eye on the forecast and they kept moving back the time that the storm was going to arrive. By 7:00 we still hadn't received any precipitation of any kind but around 7:20 they decided to cancel school because at that point the forecast was still saying we were going to get snow and freezing rain within an hour. I debated back and forth about trying to drive to the temple...I didn't want to drive on icy roads...but I finally decided to just go for it. It seems like predicted storms often don't materialize. When I left my house, there was a little bit of freezing rain coming down but only a little bit and the roads were pefectly fine. The freezing rain quickly changed to regular rain. So I was right...the winter weather never materalized, and there was no reason to cancel (or even delay) school. It's pretty frustrating when that happens, but I can't really blame the school district, since the forecast continually said we were going to get some nasty weather. I am really glad that I decided to go to the temple! The funny thing was, I had forgotten that my appointment wasn't until 11:00 (I usually make appointments for 10:00) so I got there REALLY early. (The traffic was MUCH better than usual also so I got there much quicker than usual...no doubt because school was cancelled and a lot of people were probably deterred from going out because of the forecast.) It all turned out fine...they were able to work me in at 10:00 instead of at 11:00. When I was done and went back downstairs, I noticed the organ in the chapel was playing Christmas music so I sat down in front of the mural (which is just outside the chapel) and listened to Christmas music for quite a while. It was just really lovely to be in the temple listening to Christmas music!!

After I got home from the temple, I got the rest of the regular chores done. Jared came over in the late afternoon (Jessie had a friend visiting her) and he and Seth played games together. Jared stayed for dinner and then Frank played games with them also. It was pouring rain all afternoon, evening, and all night and this morning the river was up quite a bit.

It's even higher now. It was nice to see the sun again today, although as I said...it's really cold now.

I've spent today inside doing things like updating the budget and making cookie dough (I'll be making cookies after dinner). Frank has been running errands like getting a few things from the store. Seth went over to the carpool boys' house to play for a few hours this afternoon; Frank took him there and back also. Normally, he would walk but with wind chills below zero, we decided that wasn't a great idea. I'm really glad Frank did all those things so that I didn't have to go out in the cold! Right now Frank is making us some grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. We were supposed to have Mongolian beef for dinner but I discovered a couple of hours ago that when I put the meat in the crock pot this morning, I forgot to turn it on! I was so mad at myself when I realized that!! Since the meat had been sitting in there for 6 or 7 hours, we're not sure it's any good, so we had to throw it out.

The only other thing that happened this week was that I spent some time trying to get in touch with Seth's counselor at school since he is practically failing his math class. I had to email her three times before she finally called me. Then I was able to have a good discussion with her. She pulled Seth in to talk to her too and I have also been communicating with his teacher. Unfortunately, since it took so long to connect with his counselor, we really aren't going to be able to do anything to help him improve his grade until after winter break, and there will only be a couple of weeks left in the term by then. But I tried! We may have him take Algebra 2 again this summer...even if he manages to get a passing grade, we feel like he's missed so many of the concepts that taking it again (from a different teacher!) would be beneficial. We'll make that decision in a few months.

Thursday was supposed to be the last day of school for Seth (but it turned out to be Wednesday) and Thursday was also Frank's last day of work until January. It will be nice to have some family time! 

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas; we love you!!!