I guess I'm doing better this week because I am getting this post written on Friday instead of on Saturday, like the previous two weeks. I don't feel like I was very productive this week. At the end of every day I would wonder why I didn't get more done.
Going back to Sunday (the 14th)...I had choir practice before church because we were singing prelude music for our ward conference. It wasn't our best performance (we didn't have much time to practice) but it went okay. Our meetings were really good. I had been asked to substitute in nursery, but there is only one nursery age child in our ward and her family didn't come on Sunday so I went to the meeting that the stake RS presidency taught for all the sisters instead. Frank started an emotional resiliance self-reliance group on Sunday. Our former bishop (released last fall; Frank was one of his counselors) decided to have a group for men in the ward and he asked Frank and his other former counselor to attend. There are a number of other men in the group too. The group will meet for twelve weeks. He seemed to enjoy the first meeting. Jared & Jessie came over for dinner and games that evening as usual. That's always fun!
I don't know if I've mentioned that Jessie has been applying to graduate schools. She applied to 3 schools and she has been accepted to 2 of them and is waiting to hear back from the third one. Last week she found out that she had been accepted to the second one, which is her top choice, so of course she is happy about that and we are excited for her. This school is in Tyler, Texas. The other one is in Chicago. The school she is waiting to hear from is in Towson, Maryland. If she gets accepted to Towson and she decides to go there, they will not have to move. Otherwise, they will be moving of course. As I mentioned, the Texas school is her top choice but there are advantages to staying here so if she gets accepted to Towson, they will have to weigh the pros and cons. We'll be sad if they move, but happy for Jessie, of course! Meanwhile, Jared is in the process of getting set up through BYU-I online so that he can finish his associate's degree. He only has a few credits left to get that degree.
Monday and Tuesday I taught Seminary, as usual. I taught about forgiveness (Enos) on Monday and Tuesday's lesson was about identifying gospel principles in Jarom & Omni. For Tuesday's lesson I decided to try something to make it more fun. I divided the class into three groups and each group read the chapters looking for gospel principles. For every principle they found, I gave them 2 popsicle sticks. Each group built a "temple" out of their popsicle sticks and at the end of class we voted on which "temple" was the best. Everyone got a treat, but the winning team got to choose first. I was pleased that all the kids participated and seemed to have fun. It was also good for us as teachers because we realized that the kids don't have a good understanding of what a gospel principle is, so we will be emphasizing gospel principles more in the future.
My team teacher took a few photos too so I am actually in a few of them! (Proof that I exist!)😂
I actually didn't get a photo of the winning team's temple...I thought I took one, but it didn't come out.
My team teacher and I were surprised on Tuesday evening when we were contacted by the mom of one of our Seminary students...the student who decided to stop coming in January...to say that her daughter was thinking about coming back to Seminary and would that be okay? Of course it was okay with us! She started coming the next morning and attended for the rest of the week. We are happy to have her back. 😊
On Wednesday morning we had guest teacher for Seminary--we asked our stake Seminary supervisor to teach. She did a great job and it was good to chat with her afterwards. That day I got one of my Seminary lessons for next week prepared. My team teacher and I also spent quite a bit of time discussing our schedule for the last 3 weeks of Seminary. We decided to do something a little different with our doctrinal mastery lessons next week and that mixed the schedule up a bit. We did get everything figured out, though. We have a guest teacher on Tuesday next week and then on Wednesday we are each doing part of the lesson. I mostly know what I want to do for my part, I just need to work out a few details. On Friday we are working together again, but we aren't sure what we are doing yet so I will still have some work to do on that next week when we figure out exactly what we are doing.
Seth had a doctor appointment on Wednesday afternoon after school...just a medication check-up. That evening Frank took Seth to his YM activity while I went to a VITA end of tax season celebration. We met at a restaurant for pizza and wings. (The United Way pays for the meal for all the volunteers.) It was fun...I got to see some of the other volunteers whom I have worked with in the past but didn't see this year because we volunteered on different days. It was a really nice day so we ate outside on the patio and it was really pleasant.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened yesterday except that I made a breakfast casserole to take to Seminary this morning because I had signed up to provide breakfast. I didn't bake the casserole until this morning, just mixed it up yesterday. I brought doughnuts and fruit for breakfast as well. We had a doctrinal mastery review this morning which means we played games to help the kids learn / remember the doctrinal mastery verses. We played one game that involved shooting baskets (they are looking at phones sometimes because they are looking up scriptures in the Doctrinal Mastery app):
After Seminary, Jared and I went to the temple together. We did initiatories so we didn't see each other much while at the temple but we had plenty of time to visit on the way there and back. We took my car but Jared drove and it was nice for me to have a break from driving (plus I wasn't trying to stay awake!) It's rainy and rather chilly today but the temple grounds still looked beautiful.
We went to the distribution center so Jared could purchase some white pants. When we got back to the house, he tried them on and I marked them so that I can hem them for him. Then we had lunch together and talked some more before he had to leave.
I tried to read the book for book chat this week (It Couldn't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis) but I haven't made much progress. I haven't had a lot of free time to read in the first place and when I have had time I've been hampered by the fact that I'm tired so I'm fighting sleep! The book is not boring...I actually think it's pretty interesting...but it's not fast moving or super engaging so it's just hard for me to stay awake. It's also not an easy read...the kind of book you have to really concentrate and focus when you're reading it if you want to understand it. I very much doubt I will finish it before book chat on Wednesday but hopefully I'm at least put a dent in it.
Frank had his annual performance review at work this week and he received "exceeds expectations" so he was pleased about that. He always works really hard so it's nice to be recognized for that. He has been really tired lately...his CPAP is not working very well. We have been trying to get him a new one for months (literally since last October, I think) and supposedly the new one will be here in the next couple of weeks. For Frank's sake, I really hope so! You wouldn't believe the run around he's been getting and all the hoops he's had to jump through to get to this point. It's really frustrating.
Seth drove to Seminary nearly every day this week so he's getting in some practice. He is doing okay and I'm seeing improvement in some areas. We just need to get out more often, to give him practice at different times of day and on different types of roads. (He hasn't tried the freeway yet, for example.) He took the SAT a few weeks ago and got his score today. He did pretty well...scored in the 80th percentile.
I was asked this week if I could help with cooking for Girls' Camp this summer. I helped in the kitchen a few days last year and one of the women I worked with then is in charge of the food this year and asked me if I can help. She would actually like me to stay for the whole week, if possible. Frank and I have been discussing it to see if that will work. It looks pretty likely that I will be able to go...if not for the entire week, at least for most of it. I really enjoyed working with all the women in the kitchen last year so I would like to do it even though I know it will be a lot of work.
I haven't given an update on Tanner lately so I'll do that to finish up. I actually can't remember what I have shared previously, so I will mention that at the beginning of March he filed for divorce. He didn't want to do that...he was hoping they could work things out...but Darlee would not communicate with him at all so he felt like he didn't have much choice. Darlee got a lawyer so Tanner had to get one too. There was a lot of silence for a while but he finally got a response from her lawyer last week and they are working out some minor negotiations. Hopefully they will come to an agreement soon and if so it may only take a couple more weeks. We are sad about it...they have made it clear that they don't want any contact with him. We do care about Darlee and want to know how she is doing but unfortunately it's not going to be possible for us to keep in contact with her. We thought she would be part of our family forever so this feels very heart breaking to us too.
Tanner is coping really well, overall. He's definitely had some really difficult days but I think it was harder for him when he was "in limbo" and still hoping there was a chance things could work out. He has a little more peace and closure now and has been able to focus more on moving forward with his life. He has been meeting with a life coach and has been setting some good goals. He started exercising regularly about a month ago and he is actually training to run a half marathon at the beginning of June. He also started a new job this week. About a month ago he went to see his former mission president, just to get caught up with him. When Tanner mentioned that he was looking for a better job, his mission president, who owns Mr. Mac (a retail chain that sells men's clothing, particularly suits), said "I know what kind of missionary you were and I would be totally willing to hire you." Tanner said he would think about it, and a few days later his mission president emailed him and said "I was completely serious about hiring you. Let me know if you are interested." They talked some more and Tanner decided to accept his offer. He gets a lot more hours at this job than his last job and he also has the potential to earn commission on top of his hourly rate (which is pretty good to begin with). We talked to Tanner on Tuesday and he said his first day of work went really well, and he really likes it so far. He even sold about $800 of merchandise in the couple of hours that he wasn't getting trained. Hopefully things will continue to go well there. It is good to see him making some positive changes.
Oh, and here are a few wildlife photos. On Sunday there was a duck in the common area behind our house and then on Monday I saw a goose out there. (Haven't seen much since then, though, except for the usual squirrels and rabbits.) I also saw a fox out there last week but it ran away before I could get a photo.
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