I didn't post last week because I was out of town. I got home on Wednesday (April 3rd) but since then I have been very busy trying to get caught up on everything that piled up while I was gone. I am finally almost caught up...this is the last thing I need to do. I'm not sure how much I will be able to remember about the last 2 weeks but I'm sure no one will complain if I don't go into a lot of details.
On Saturday the 23rd I got my hair cut. That's the only thing that is on my calendar and now I can't remember anything else about that day. I'm sure it was busy! On Sunday the 24th we met for the first time with our "new" ward. All the wards in our stake had fast & testimony meetings that week. Several of the new members of our ward shared testimonies and overall it was a very beautiful meeting with a sweet spirit. For the second hour, we all met together for Sunday School instead of RS and Priesthood meetings so that there would be more opportunites to get to know each other (plus no RS presidency was called, so there was no one to preside at a RS meeting). Jared & Jessie came over as usual for dinner and games, and I gave them some bags of Easter treats.
For Seminary that week I taught two lessons about prayer...both related to the Doctrinal Mastery scripture 2 Nephi 32:8-9. They went okay but our class has reverted somewhat these last couple of weeks and the kids haven't been participating as much. My team teacher and I are hoping that they will be improved when we go back this week...hopefully they were just getting tired and needed a break! I guess we'll see. I felt a bit more free that week because I didn't have Seminary lessons to prepare for the following week. I enjoyed the break! I can't remember any details of what I did most days, besides the usual chores. I also started to prepare for our Utah trip.
On Wednesday the 27th I did my VITA shift as usual. I can't remember a lot of it now except that one woman I helped began by telling me that her husband had passed away a few weeks before. I felt so sad for her, although she seemed to be coping fairly well. We were busy but not too busy so that was nice.
That evening I had book chat. I didn't love the book we read (The Unsinkable Greta James) and a lot of the other book chat members didn't like it very much either. We did have a good discussion, though. Now we are reading It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. I haven't started reading it yet becasue I don't have a copy of the book yet. While I'm waiting to get that book, I have started reading Freewater, which is the 2023 Newbery winner.
Seth and I started packing on Wednesday the 27th and I realized that Seth didn't have very many long sleeve shirts that still fit him so on Thursday morning when I went to the store I looked for some long sleeve shirts for him. At first I didn't think I would find any because the stores are geared up for the coming warmer seasons so all the short sleeve shirts are out. But then I found a clearance rack and managed to find three long sleeve shirts his size. Two of them cost $3.00 each and one of them was only $.50! So I scored three new shirts for him for only $6.50...nice!!
For Seminary Thursday morning, one of the families provided a yummy breakfast. My team teacher planned a short Doctrinal Mastery review which involved looking for plastic Easter egg halves and then putting them together (two parts of the key phrase for each scripture) and then putting the egg in the right part of the egg tray (which had the scripture references). The kids seemed to really enjoy this, once they woke up enough to get into it!
The rest of Thursday was busy with laundry and other chores, plus finishing packing which took almost all day for some reason. I barely got everything done in time to leave for the airport shortly after Seth got home from school. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:00 pm so we had to be at the airport at 5:00 and left home around 3:30 since we knew traffic might be bad. We weren't sure how the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse would effect traffic on I-695; luckily, it wasn't any worse than usual and we arrived at the airport in plenty of time. While we were waiting to get on our flight to Chicago, we met a missionary who was just arriving to serve his mission here in Baltimore.
Our flight to Chicago was completely full but uneventful. Our flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City was delayed about 30 minutes. Then after we boarded we ended up sitting on the plane for over an hour before we finally took off. This was because of delays in loading the baggage (which included "human remains", according to the captain...thanks for sharing that with us!) and a shift change of ground personnel, plus waiting for a couple of planes to land before we could take off. We finally got off the ground and then the rest of the flight was smooth. This flight was not completely full so Seth and I had an empty seat in between us. I tried to sleep and did sleep a little bit, but not much. Our flight didn't land until about 2:00 am Utah time which was 4:00 am at home and since I got up at 3:30 am Thursday morning, that meant I had very little sleep for over 24 hours. (Kudos to Scott for picking us up at that terrible hour!) When I got to Mom's house, Amy had woken up so we ended up talking a bit. Then I woke up again only about 3 hours after I went to sleep and never went back to sleep or took a nap so I was pretty tired by the end of that day.
I don't remember a lot of details about what we did each day of our trip, either. It was a very laid back and relaxed vacation with a lot of sitting around and visiting...very nice! I didn't get a ton of sleep, though! On Friday the 29th, Janna came over in the morning to visit. I was coordinating with Rachelle to plan a family Easter dinner for Sunday and at Mom's house we were planning what we would bring and what groceries needed to be purchased. (Hans did most of the shopping although I ended up getting a ham and a couple of other things on Saturday.) On Friday I also saw Jeremy and Ammon and of course my own boys. Lots of talking & fun!
My three boys (Jared was in Maryland)...we were comparing heights. Tanner is still the tallest, but they are all pretty close. Seth has almost caught up with Scott.
On Saturday the 30th I helped Tanner make some cookies and then went with him to deliver them to a bunch of his friends. The following day was his last day in his ward (the married student ward he's been in for nearly 5 years) so he wanted to give cookies to his closest friends. It was fun to meet a bunch of his friends and they all told me what a great guy he is and how much they'll miss him. In one way I was feeling very old though...all of his friends looked so young to me!! One couple had a two year old and were expecting a second child and that mom looked like she was about 16 to me. A few others were expecting babies and one couple had just got home from the hospital with their first baby who was born the day before. I kept looking at all these young people and wondering how they could really be old enough to be parents! 😅 I'm sure people used to think the exact same thing about me, though. I often had people tell me I didn't look old enough to have kids. (Or to have kids as old as they were at the time...as a matter of fact, that still happens to me sometimes.)
After delivering most of the cookies, we got some burgers for dinner, then delivered a few more cookies, and then we went to visit some Maryland friends that live in Utah now. (The McClatchie family). They have been in Utah a few years but have moved into their new house since the last time we saw them (they were having a house built). Their new house is beautiful, and we had a great time visiting with them...stayed a lot longer than we intended. Then after I got home, I ended up staying up even later talking to Scott and then to Amy. (But I loved having the chance to talk with both of them!)
In spite of the late night, I still woke up pretty early on Sunday the 31st. I connected to my home ward and watched most of Sacrament Meeting, which included some beautiful talks and music. Then I showered and went with Amy and Mom to Mom's ward...Hans had left earlier because he was part of a musical number and he needed to practice. The Primary presidency was in charge of the meeting and they planned a program that was similar to a Primary program, except they included the whole ward...children, youth, and adults. There were many short speaking parts and lots of beautiful musical numbers. It was a wonderful meeting! I especially loved the children's songs and the men's song that Hans was a part of.
After that meeting I went back to Mom's and ate breakfast (hadn't had time to eat before the meeting) and visited until it was time to go to Scott's Sacrament Meeting. (Seth and Tanner also went to that meeting.) Scott's ward's meeting was also really beautiful, with some gorgeous music and heartfelt testimonies and it finished up with a powerful talk given by Scott. I definitely felt incredibly spiritually fed! It was a lovely Easter, in spite of the cold and rain.
After I got back to Mom's, we finished up dinner preparations (cutting up fruit for a fruit salad and making a green salad...Hans had made an apple cake and he, Mom and Amy had made a potato salad and some deviled eggs the night before; I helped a little bit with the potato salad before I had to leave with Tanner). They put the ham in the oven to warm up earlier too. We all headed to Tim & Rachelle's house where we enjoyed a delicious dinner and lots of (loud!😆) visiting with extended family and some friends. A lot of Shellie's and Tim's families were there, as well as Amy's boys, the whole group from Mom's house, and Rachelle's sister and her mom and Jay and a few family friends. I did not take many photos on this trip at all (too busy enjoying the moment, I guess) but Rachelle thought to get a picture of all the siblings and Mom together.
Monday the 1st and Tuesday the 2nd were quiet days where I mostly just enjoyed visiting with family at Mom's. Erika came over on Monday to cut Mom's hair so we got to visit with her. Amy and I also finished up Mom's tax return...I can't remember what day we worked on it earlier (maybe Friday?) Amy prepared most of it before I arrived in Utah, but I checked it over for her. When we got to the state part of her return, the software was doing something funky and it took us a while to figure it out, but eventually we did and were able to get her federal and state returns filed. On Monday evening Scott, Lexy, Seth and I watched a movie called Arrival together...I really liked it! On Tuesday Amy and I went through some of Mom's fabric scraps and chose some to keep (I brought home quite a bit...hoping to use some of them to make a quilt someday.) I was particularly happy to find a couple of fabrics used to make blouses for my mission, a few more used to make shirts for my boys, and even one fabric that was used to make dresses for Amy and I when we were little girls! (A cute "paper doll" pattern.)
Seth enjoyed playing video games and spending time with his brothers while we were in Utah. Scott took him to dinner on Saturday and Tanner took him to see a movie (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, at home, Frank had Easter dinner with the Hatches (Jessie's family). He worked, of course, and did work for clients. He also went through all his clothes and filled a bag of things to donate. It rained a LOT, including a large thunderstorm that woke him up one night. It has continued to rain quite a bit since we got home and everything is very GREEN. It still isn't very warm, though.
Amy flew home Tuesday evening and Seth and I flew home Wednesday morning. (Well, it was morning when we left Utah...we arrived home around dinner time.) We were on a nonstop flight coming home which was really nice. I actually slept for a while, which surprised me since I slept well the night before. We landed in Baltimore a few minutes early but then we had to wait nearly an hour for our luggage to get unloaded...not sure why. Frank picked us up and we stopped at Cafe Rio on the way home to pick up some dinner. After we got home, Frank went to bed and Seth and I ate dinner and unpacked. I was in bed by 10:00 pm and didn't expect to go to sleep since it was only 8:00 pm in Utah and I'd been staying up MUCH later than that most nights, but to my surprise I fell asleep quickly.
I'm so grateful I got to go on this trip, but it is also really nice to be home. I've spent the last few days getting back into my regular routine (exercising and regular chores) as well as getting caught up on everything, as I mentioned before. Besides getting caught up with laundry, meal planning, grocery shopping, finances, and cleaning, I also got our tax returns filed yesterday and our business annual report filing done today. I got both of my Seminary lessons for next week prepared also (did most of that yesterday; did some preparation in Utah and a little more on Thursday). It's been pretty busy and I've felt a bit stressed at times but I finally feel like I'm caught up and ready to move into a new week.
Jared came over for a while yesterday afternoon. He took Seth driving for a while and then later he and his father-in-law met Frank and Seth for dinner at Applebee's because there was a great sale on wings. (I stayed home to work on Seminary lessons and let them have their "guy time"!) None of us felt the earthquake that happened in New Jersey, although apparently many people in Baltimore did.
Today we enjoyed watching General Conference--it was wonderful! We invited the Sister missionaries over to watch the second session and to have dinner with us. We put some white chicken chili in the crock pot this morning and I made a green salad shortly before Conference started, so everyone was able to eat whenever they got hungry during the session. We had a few snacks and lots of leftover Easter candy too. (I made treat bags for each member of the family to take to Utah--I left a treat bag for Frank as well--but there was a lot of candy leftover which I pulled out today.)
Here are a few pictures to finish up. It rained a lot on Wednesday and overnight so the river was really flooded Thursday morning. (It's gone back to normal now.) We also had some beautiful sunrises on both Thursday and Friday:
And here is one more picture that was just shared with me this week. It was taken at the ward Easter dinner a few weeks ago. Remember I mentioned that Seth was one of the narrators? I'm grateful to have this photo since afterwards I regretted that I had forgotten to take any photos of Seth in the program.
I've probably forgotten tons of things, but hopefully that was the most important stuff!
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