I didn't write a review last week because we were in NC for Thanksgiving. Now I have two weeks to cover but little time to write. I will try to summarize as much as possible. When I wrote last, Tanner and Scott were arriving that night. They didn't get here until after midnight and I got so tired that I took an hour nap before they arrived. A guy that used to live in our ward picked them up at the airport and brought them here--it turns out that this guy's son & his wife were on the same flight with Tanner & Scott (they knew each other and were friends growing up too...he's about the same age as Jared) so he offered to pick them all up. That was very helpful for us since Frank and I were both really tired. When the boys arrived, I stayed up a while to talk with them but finally went to bed and slept for a few hours.
On Saturday (the 18th), Frank was gone most of the day helping with the organ workshop at the church. I didn't make much progress with Seminary lesson preparations on Friday so I spent a good portion of the day on Saturday doing that. I felt a pretty high level of stress and frustration over those lessons, but I did finally get all of them planned. I still had prep work to do, but they were things I felt like I could get done while visiting with the boys. Scott slept in quite a bit but Tanner was up fairly early because he was meeting a friend for breakfast. (A friend from his mission who lives out here now, attending UMD.). Later that afternoon all the boys did some yardwork...used the leaf blower to gather up all the leaves, did some weeding, and Seth mowed the lawn. That evening they decided they wanted to go see downtown Frederick and visit Carroll Creek Park where there are small boats decorated with lights moored in the creek. They convinced Seth to go with them and Jared met them there when he got off work. They got home pretty late but had a lot of fun. They had also visited a pop shop that has many unique flavors of pop and each brought home a different kind:
While they were gone, I worked on the Christmas pillows...I cut out and sewed the borders on each one:
We all went to church together on Sunday and the boys enjoyed seeing a lot of old friends. It really warms my heart, how many members of our ward are so happy to see our boys. They are so fortunate to have so many adults who love them and care about them, and who have been good examples to them and still mentor them. Jared was going to join us too but he ended up spending all morning trying to help Jessie because her car got towed the night before when she went to visit a friend in another part of Maryland (about an hour and a half away). Her car was towed in error...she had the proper parking pass...but they still had to pay a bunch of money to get her car back and they are still trying to straighten that out and get their money back. Sounds like the towing company is incredibly unethical. After church I had choir practice and then a temple recommend interview with a member of the stake presidency. Frank had a recommend interview too but ended up doing it at home, via Zoom. He took everyone else home after church so they wouldn't have to wait for me. Choir practice is always great and my recommend interview was really nice too. The counselor in the stake presidency who did the interview took the time to chat with me for quite a while about my life and so forth, and gave me some really encouraging words about Seminary. Jared & Jessie were able to make it in time for dinner so we all had dinner together and then played a crazy game called Bank. It was a lot of fun!
Since we only had 2 days of Seminary that week, my team teacher and I each taught one day. I taught on Tuesday because I was doing the doctrinal mastery review and we thought that would be more fun to do on the last day before vacation. I was super busy all day on Monday with all the regular chores (laundry, vacuuming, grocery shopping) plus working on Seminary lessons, sending emails for Seminary (trying to get a guest teacher set up for next week), getting an oil change for my car, and purchasing fabric and batting for the Christmas pillows I'm working on. Tanner helped me out a lot by taking my car to get the oil change while I did the fabric shopping. The oil change place was near the fabric store so he dropped me off and then picked me back up when the oil change was done. Tanner also made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that evening for me to take to Seminary the next morning because I was running out of time to do that myself. (I didn't have to take muffins, but I wanted to.) Scott and Tanner went to lunch with a friend that day too.
Frank was able to work from home on Tuesday. We were planning to leave for NC when Seth got out of school that afternoon so Tuesday was busy too with more household chores, more Seminary lesson prep, and packing for our trip. Tanner & Scott helped Frank do a bunch of cleaning in the basement...they took two carloads of computer equipment to a place that recycles it. The basement looks a LOT tidier now, which makes me happy. (I wouldn't say it's all neat and organized, but it's a lot better than it was.) I got the batting and backing cut out for my pillows and gathered all the sewing supplies I would need into a bag so I could take that project with me on the trip. Silly me, I didn't stop to think about how crowded we would be in the car! Because of that (and the fact that it was dark for the first leg of the trip on Tuesday) I didn't end up working on that project at all while we were on our trip. But at least I was able to show the pillows to Frank's mom...she loves quilting so she really enjoyed seeing them.
We got on the road about an hour after Seth got home from school. That part of the trip turned out to be pretty crazy because it was raining cats & dogs the whole way, the traffic was terrible from the get go (we probably passed 5 different accidents), we had 5 people (4 of whom are taller than 6 feet) packed into the car like sardines, and within the first hour we had to pull over so Seth could be sick on the side of the road. (He sometimes gets carsick.) We moved Seth to the front seat for a while! As the shortest person, I sat in the middle seat in the back and I had nowhere to put my feet because the bag of snacks was right in front of me. I actually started to feel slightly sick myself, which never happens to me. After Seth got sick, we stopped at a gas station for a restroom break and bought some dramemine for him. I decided to take some too and that really helped. (Seth felt much better too.) In spite of all the craziness, I did enjoy watching episodes of Call the Midwife on my iPad. Seth started watching them too, since he was sitting next to me, and he got pretty interested in the show which I thought was pretty funny. We drove to Christiansburg, Virginia that day and spent the night at a Fairfield Inn.
On Wednesday the 22nd we drove the remainder of the way to Brevard. We got there around lunch time and had a little trouble finding a place to eat that was open but we finally found a pizza place.
After eating, we visited Frank's parents and then went to the grocery store to get things we needed to make our contributions for Thanksgiving dinner. Boys at the grocery store:
Then we went to Dawn's house and spent the afternoon making food for the next day. We all went to get dinner at Arby's and Dawn came with us because Scott was staying at her house, so she was able to take him back home with her. Boys visiting with Dawn while we wait for our food:
On Thanksgiving morning we went back to Dawn's house to make a big pot of mashed potatoes. We watched some of the Macy's parade while they were boiling:
We all gathered at the church for Thanksgiving dinner and games / visiting afterwards. The food was great and we had a fun time, but I didn't take many pictures. A friend sent me a photo of herself with her family so I asked someone to take this photo for me to send to her (Frank was resting in another room):
On Friday we got back together to eat a bunch of the leftovers for lunch and had more family time visiting and playing games. We got sub sandwiches for dinner that night.
We were up early on Saturday because we were driving the whole way home that day and wanted to get home in time for a family dinner to celebrate Tanner's birthday. I was kind of dreading the drive home but for some reason it seemed easier than the drive down. It probably helped that we made a place in the trunk for the bag of snacks so I actually had a place to put my feet. I had finished the last season of Call the Midwife, so I started watching The Chosen. I'm really enjoying that...it's so good! We made pretty good time and got home in time for dinner. Tanner had a headache and didn't really want to go out anywhere so we ended up ordering Chinese food and that was perfect. Jared & Jessie joined us too:
After dinner, Frank and I went to the store to get a few necessary grocery items and we also stopped at the storage unit to get the boxes of Christmas decorations. We haven't put any decorations up yet, but I wanted some Christmas decorations for my Seminary lesson the next morning and it just made sense to get all of the decorations as long as we were at it. (Hopefully we will get time to put up at least some of the decorations tomorrow.) We also did some laundry on Saturday evening. Poor Jared broke his toe while we were gone (banged it on a door frame)! Jessie had already left (they had to come in two different vehicles). Scott drove Jared to the ER to get his toe looked at (all the urgent cares were closed or he would have gone there). Although he knew they couldn't really do anything for his toe, he wanted to comfirm that it was broken and make sure he had taped it correctly. The break was confirmed and the ER doctor said he had taped it just right. Since he broke a toe on his left foot, he was able to drive himself home.
On Sunday we all went to church together again, and Jared was able to come this time, in spite of his broken toe. We got some photos of all of us together...they didn't turn out great but here's one anyway:
I spent the afternoon putting together some little gift bags for Seminary the next day. The lesson topic was God's love, and since Jesus coming to earth is the greatest evidence of God's love, I had a Christmas themed lesson planned. So I had to have presents, right? 😉I found some inexpensive ornaments that had different names or titles for Christ on them so they each got one of those:
We had another family dinner that night (stew, salad, and rolls) along with a cake for Tanner since it was his actual birthday. Jared & Jessie came for that meal, too. The boys all put on some matching t-shirts that I got them last Christmas and we got a few pictures:
I didn't sleep well at all Sunday night so after Seminary I came home and took a nap. (My lesson went well, though.) Tanner got up as I was going back to bed but then when I woke up a few hours later, he was asleep again! Both Tanner and Scott got up around noon. After my nap, I got laundry and other chores done. When the boys got up, I went grocery shopping and Scott came with me to get some snacks for the plane ride home. Frank thought he was going to be stuck at work and not able to see the boys before we had to leave for the airport, but then he was able to leave just in time to get home in time to take them to the airport. I went also so that I would be able to visit with them on the way there. We miss them, but we are so glad that they got to come visit and that we had so much time with them.
After we got back from the airport, I still needed to make cookies because I needed them for an object lesson for Seminary on Tuesday morning. Jared gave me a great recipe for chocolate chip cookies that always turn out plump and delicious:
The rest of this week I've been trying to get back into the normal routine. I've been able to get most of the basic things done, but haven't gotten any Christmas preparations done yet. As usual, my Seminary lessons for next week are still not very prepared. I have a basic idea of what I'm doing for each one, but still need to fully plan and prepare. I guess I'll be doing that tomorrow (again...always seems to take me until Saturday to get them figured out).
We had a guest teacher for Seminary on Wednesday and she did such a great job. We asked her to teach because we thought she would be really good to teach that day's topic (work for the dead) and we were right. On Wednesday I did some Seminary lesson prep but I also took the time to mark both of the quilt blocks (pillows) I'm working on so now I am ready to start quilting. Frank took Seth to YM and he stayed at the church to do some work for his calling...he's working on getting a permanent camera set up in the chapel.
Yesterday I went to the temple which was--as always--beautiful and peaceful. (Before I went in and after I came out):
Last night I had book club. We discussed Lessons in Chemistry which I read earlier so I didn't read it again. Now we are going to read a book called Lady Tan's Circle of Women.
Today I spent a good chunk of the day updating the budget...there was a lot to do since we were gone last week and I had 2 week's worth of things to go through. I also talked to Tanner for a while. There's been some drama with one of the Seminary parents this week also which has taken up a decent chunk of my time the last 3 days.
For Seminary this morning, the bishopric of one of the other wards (who have kids in our class) came and made a hot breakfast for the kids. One of our two Seniors had the devotional today and he said he wanted to share his testimony of Seminary and then proceeded to say that even though he knows Seminary is hard and everyone is tired, it's valuable and helps with mission preparations. He also said "In the country I come from (he's one of our Spanish boys), there is a saying: "If you get up early, God will be with you all day." He said he knows that when we get up early for Seminary, God is with us all day. It was so sweet! 😊
Now it is my normal bedtime and I am tired so I will probably go to bed soon. The last three nights I actually slept well and didn't wake up until my alarm went off each morning, which was super nice!! I am grateful for any night that I get a good night's sleep.
It's hard to believe it is December now and I am feeling a big panicked about how near Christmas is, but I'm also glad that we are into the Christmas season because I love it. I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful time of year too.
No comments:
Post a Comment