Weekly Review October 25 '24

We had a busy week. Here's some of the details:

Last Friday night (the 18th) we finally did our activity and treat for family night...we had to postpone it earlier in the week because Frank was sick. We did not stay up to watch the BYU football game because it was so late. (Kickoff at 10:15, our time.) I was so tired by 9:00 pm that night, I could barely keep my eyes open! Frank's blood sugar dropped in the night, though which made his alarm go off so that woke both of us up. (He got something to eat and then he was fine.) We were having a hard time going back to sleep so we ended up watching the second half of the game since we were awake anyway. It was pretty exciting that BYU pulled off a win in the last few seconds of the game and we are happy we got to see it. Definitely one for the record books!

Saturday was quite busy because Seth went to an openhouse for Frederick Community College in the morning and worked in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I went to a soccer game for some of the boys in my Seminary class. I went to a previous game, but one of the boys in my class wasn't playing that night because he had a concussion. I did get to see him play this time. It was a beautiful day to be outside and my team teacher was there also so I enjoyed the game even though their team lost, 1-0. I worked on Seminary lessons too and finished getting this week's 3 lessons ready. I was busy all day long.

On Sunday I had choir practice after church. A sister in our ward passed away that morning, which was really sad. She had cancer previously but had gotten better; then about a month ago she got sick and they found out her cancer was back. They had just returned from a trip to Scotland and I actually didn't get a chance to see her or talk to her after they got back. They announced in Sacrament meeting that morning that she was seriously ill and asked us to pray for her; then during choir practice I found out that she had passed away during our 2nd hour of church. I have felt really sad about it all week. She was only 69 years old.

On Sunday afternoon I got a nap and also got to talk to Jared...he usualy calls on Sunday afternoon. He just started a new job this week at a gunsmithing place. His bank teller job was going fine and he was doing well there but this new job is much more interesting and fun for him. Sunday evening I took Seth to his mission prep class so I was up kind of late. 

Monday's Seminary lesson didn't go super well so I felt kind of down about that but then Tuesday's lesson went a lot better (even though I actually felt a lot better going into Monday's lesson than I did going into Tuesday's...there's just no predicting these things!) Wednesday's lesson went well also. The Elders came to do part of it and they almost didn't make it because their alarm didn't go off but it all turned out fine in the end and they did a good job. Missionaries teaching our class:

Yesterday a new boy showed up for our Seminary class...his family moved into one of the wards next to us and they live in the high school boundaries for Seth's high school. The YW president in that other ward had sent us an email earlier this week letting us know we would be getting a new boy, but she said he wouldn't be coming until next week so we were a little surprised when he came yesterday. Someone told him that our class starts at 6:00 (it actually starts at 6:10) so he was waiting at the church when we arrived. He seems like a nice boy. He's a junior and his family just moved here from Japan (they are not Japanese--his dad is either a government worker or in the military). 

At the end of Seminary on Thursday we had the kids help us take down all the tables because the funeral for the sister in our ward was that day and the viewing was being held in the RS room. This sister's husband asked Frank to help with some IT stuff for the funeral so he took the day off. I signed up to bring some of the food for the luncheon after the funeral and both Frank and I attended the funeral. It was really sweet. I picked Seth up from school because he had a dentist appointment that afternoon (just his 6 month check up). 

Today I went to the temple to do initiatories; it was beautiful, as always. When I got home, Frank and I went to lunch together. (He's working from home on Fridays too.) After lunch we ran a bunch of errands. Seth got home from school shortly before we left for lunch because today was the last day of the term and school was dismissed 2 hours early. After we got back from the errands I updated our finances and then we had dinner, so it's been another busy day.

Seth made some pretty good progress on his college applications this week. He was able to get a transcript from Frederick Community College for the classes he has taken there and he submitted his BYU-I application. He has written all of his essays for his BYU application so this week we focused on editing and polishing those essays. I read over each one and gave him suggestions and with my help he revised and finished three of them. I was hoping he would get one completed each day, but yesterday and today have been so crazy that there wasn't time to work on them. Hopefully he'll get some work done on them tomorrow but I'm not sure because tomorrow is going to be pretty busy too. 

I guess I kind of skipped over Tuesday and Wednesday...they were busy but not with anything out of the ordinary. Frank did his temple shift as usual Tuesday evening and I took Seth to YM and ran some errands. For their activity they were planning games for the ward Trunk or Treat, which is tomorrow. (It's actually a tri-ward Trunk or Treat--all three of the wards that meet in our building are meeting together for this activity.) On Wednesday I got one lesson for next week planned, but I still need to do the other one. I'll be working on that tomorrow. 

My left arm has been hurting this week for some mysterious reason. I don't remember bumping it or hurting it in any way, but my elbow hurts when I move my arm a certain way and it also hurts if I lift anything with that arm. There's one spot on my elbow that is very tender to the touch, also. It does seem to be improving, though...it hurts a lot less now than it did at the beginning of the week, so hopefully it will be all better soon. 

We had some really nice days this week; it's mostly been unseasonably warm. That's been nice except that last week we switched from A/C to the heater so we had a few days that the house got pretty warm. Seth slept in the guest room the last 3 nights instead of in his bed because it is a loft bed and it gets really hot up there. We didn't really want to switch back to A/C because it's going to start cooling down again (and most mornings are pretty chilly even if it gets quite warm during the day). We used fans at night the last few nights and opened our windows a couple of times which helped cool down the house. Meanwhile, the trees are turning all kinds of colors and it's really beautiful!!

Mist at sunrise at a park next to our house (I took this on my way home from Seminary):

That's all of our news for this week.

Weekly Review October 18 '24

This week felt long to me; I'm not sure why. 

Last Saturday Frank and I went out for breakfast to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the day we got engaged. 

After we got home, I worked on Seminary lessons for a while and finished up my preparations for this week. Then we watched the BYU football game. This is the first game this season that I've been able to watch the whole thing and thankfully BYU won so it was mostly fun to watch. When we were at breakfast we were talking about the day we got engaged and realizing that we hadn't taken any photos on that day so we decided it would be funny to try to re-create a scene from that day and take a photo of that. We did go to the BYU homecoming game together that day (in 1991) and sat in the student section in the north end zone. We got engaged early that morning but decided not to tell anyone but instead wait to see who noticed that I was wearing a ring on my left hand first. Turns out no one noticed until that evening so during the game Frank was watching my parents through binoculars (they were in the opposite end zone) and when he thought they were looking our way through their binoculars, I would hold up my left hand and we would both point at the ring. They never saw us (probably not possible at that distance, even with binoculars) but that is the scene we decided to re-create in our photo. We used a shot of the student section in the north end zone from that day's game (in 2024) as a backdrop for our photo. The lighting isn't good but you get the idea:

On Sunday after church I had choir practice and we also had family night (except for the activity / treat) and Seth went to mission prep. It was my turn to take him but Frank was sweet and took him instead so that I could go to bed. 

My Seminary lesson on Monday was about the gathering of Israel. I never felt super great about it, but it went okay. On Tuesday we had the guest teacher that I mentioned last week, so I didn't have to teach but helping her get things wrapped up on Monday afternoon / evening was indeed rather stressful. It all worked out okay in the end. Her lesson was definitely different from what we normally do but she said some really good things and some of the kids really seemed to connect with her so that was all good. I was helping with Power Point slides and such so I stayed up front with her and my team teacher took this photo of us:

Back to Monday, Seth actually missed both Seminary and school that day because he got sick. He got up and got ready for Seminary but then started feeling sick to his stomach. I had to leave him at home to go teach and he threw up while I was gone. He felt bettter after that, but stayed home to make sure he wasn't going to be sick again. He didn't have any more trouble and by midday he was fine, so I had him work on some of his college application stuff. 

That evening Seth and I went to a marching band showcase because two of the members of our Seminary class are in his high school's marching band. My team teacher went too...actually, she picked us up and we all went together. They were the third band to perform but we stayed until intermission, so we saw five bands perform. Their band was definitely the largest and I thought the most visually pleasing. They sounded great, too. I was actually surprised a bit at how small most of the bands were. Nothing like the photos I've seen of Amy's kids in their band performances at their high school. The temperatures on Monday were in the 50s and it was windy so we actually got pretty cold. I had worn a hoodie and a coat, and I was really glad I did. My team teacher brought a blanket and even with all those layers I still got cold. (But it wasn't too bad.) None of my photos of the marching band are very good but I do like this one of the moon and the sunset:

Before we left for the marching band showcase, Frank had started to feel sick to his stomach and he threw up while we were gone. (Seemed to be the theme for the day, and I was the lucky one he did not get sick that day at all!) He started to feel better on Tuesday so we think it was probably a side effect of one of the medications that he's taking (it sometimes causes him to feel nauseated). We had planned to do the activity / treat part of family night after we got back from the showcase, but since Frank wasn't feeling well we had to postpone that plan.

Frank was able to go into work to attend some meetings on Tuesday (later than usual, though...he left after I got back from Seminary) but he decided he probably shouldn't do his temple shift, so he let his supervisor know that morning that he wouldn't be there. I took Seth to YM that evening as usual. While he was at his activity (they played volleyball and practiced a song), I met with the Elders in our ward because they are going to help with part of our Seminary lesson on Wednesday. I explained what we want them to do and they are excited about it (and we're excited to have them come!) 

On Wednesday I got plans for next week's 3 Seminary lessons done. I still need to create Power Point slides and a bunch of things like that, but I haven't had much chance to work on them since then. I feel pretty good about Monday's and Wednesday's lessons, but Tuesday's still feels really rough to me. I'll be working on all of those either tonight or tomorrow. Our stake Seminary supervisor visited our class Wednesday morning and afterwards gave us some good feedback and we got a chance to ask questions and pass along ideas of things we need (like training on the new curriculum that's starting in January). She is new this year but taught Seminary for many years and she has been really great and very helpful. 

Wednesday evening I had book chat. We discussed Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner and there was a lot to discuss about this book so I didn't get home until after 9:00. Now we are going to read As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. I actually read this book when I was in high school and I remember I definitely didn't like it, but I'm willing to give it another chance. Just maybe 56 year old me will get more out of it than 17 year old me did! I remember it being very confusing and not making a lot of sense, but that's about all I remember about it. My library only has one copy of the book, so I had to request it through inter-library loan again and probably won't get it for another week or so.

Yesterday Seth had to work after school. Frank and I made dinner together and then watched a show together while we ate dinner. A few weeks ago we started watching a show called 24 together. It's interesting because one season covers a 24 hour period and each 1 hour episode covers 1 hour of that 24 hour day. We watch 2 or 3 episodes together each week, so it is going to take us a long time to get through one season, but we are enjoying doing this together.

Today there isn't school (teacher professional learning day) and Frank works from home on Fridays so we all got to sleep in. Nice! I met with my team teacher at the church for about an hour so we could plan the schedule for the rest of the semester and we made a list of possible guest teachers. After that I took Seth to the doctor for his 6 month medication check. Seth doesn't feel like his medicine is working as well as it used to but he also doesn't feel like he needs it as much so after this term ends (end of next week) he is going to try not taking his medicine for a few weeks and see how it goes, and we have a follow up visit with his doctor after that. We are planning to let his teachers know ahead of time that we are doing this experiment so that hopefully they will be more willing to work with him to get caught up if he starts to struggle. We'll see how it goes. 

Other than all that, I've been doing all the usual household chores and trying to encourage Seth to work on his college applications. He did do a few things this week without my reminding him to do it, like turn in a form to his counselor and talk to his CTC teacher about an issue we've been having with viewing his grades online. It's always encouraging when he does something like that...maybe he will figure out how to be an adult someday! 😊

That's all I can think of for this week. I'll sign off with a few photos of pretty clouds I took on Monday.

Weekly Review October 11 '24

 I'm going to do categories this week. 

General Conference Like many of you, we spent most of the weekend watching General Conference. Seth missed the Saturday afternoon session because he was at work. Frank missed most of the Saturday evening session because he was helping a former member of our ward who had just got out of the hospital. (He's in a different ward from us now because of the boundary change.) I got to watch all the sessions, although I missed some of the beginning of the Saturday evening session because I was picking Seth up from work. We invited the Elders serving in our ward to watch the Sunday afternoon session with us and were going to feed them dinner too but then one of them got sick so they couldn't come. Frank and Seth took some food over to their apartment instead. As always, there were so many wonderful talks and the music was beautiful! The children's choir was so sweet and I was really impressed with their musical abilities, too. It was so cool to hear them sing Lane's song! One thing I really loved about this conference in addition to the talks and music was that since a couple of the sessions ended early, we got to see a lot of the church leaders interacting with each other, the choirs, and the congregations as they were leaving at the end of the sessions. So much love...it was really fun and sweet to see that! I took brief notes while I listened but I also worked on a color by number and finished the one I've been working on for a long time (probably since last General Conference!) I'm looking forward to listening to and reading all the talks again. 

Seth's college applications: He was supposed to meet with his school counselor last Friday but she wasn't there so he had to reschedule and was finally able to meet with her today. We've been looking at a lot of different options for him and this week looked closer at the majors available at some of the schools he was considering and discovered that many of them don't really have a good major for what he wants to do (computer networking / information systems) so we ruled out a few places. He is going to go ahead and apply to the Church schools (BYU, BYU-I and Ensign College). Of the three of those, it actually looks like Ensign College probably has the best options for him, but it's hard to know for sure. He is also considering the option of staying here and taking classes at the local community college for a year or two. He's already a student there (he's been taking some dual enrollment classes through his CTC courses since his sophomore year) so he doesn't have to apply...he can just sign up for classes in the fall. He has filled out a lot of the BYU application, his ecclesiastical endorsement interviews are done, he has asked one of his teachers for a letter of recommendation, and he has started working on the essays. I helped him brainstorm a few ideas for those but ultimately he will have to decide what he wants to say, of course. He still has a lot of work to do but he's making progress.

Sleep: This was a really bad week for sleeping for me. I had three days (Monday, Tuesday, and today) that I woke up at 1:00 am and didn't go back to sleep before the alarm went off. I was also up later than I wanted to be (not really late, but closer to 9:00 instead of 8:00) several nights and naps were either short or didn't happen at all. The end result is I think I got less than 6 hours of sleep (and sometimes a lot less than 6, closer to 4 hours) evey night this week. Not so fun! I remember my efforts to take a nap on Monday were hampered by the fact that one of our neighbors was getting a new fence put in so there was lots of banging and other noises going on outside my window. I did get an hour nap this morning between Seminary and going to the temple, which is how it is even possible for me to be awake right now, typing this post. Hopefully I will sleep better this coming week.

Seminary: My lesson on Monday was disappointing to me (kids didn't want to participate) but Tuesday went better. My team teacher and I spent a lot of time this week helping our guest teacher for next week prepare her lesson. Definitely a lot more time than either of us would have spent on that lesson if we were preparing it ourselves! We have no idea how it's going to go and we are both kind of stressed about it but we feel like it's important to give her the opportunity to have this experience, so we're running with it. She does have some good ideas and thoughts. She asked if she could come observe us teach which we thought was a really good idea so she came to my lesson on Tuesday and my team teacher's lesson on Thursday. Today we played some fun games to help the kids learn some of the doctrinal mastery scriptures. I have my lesson for Monday sort of planned, but need to finish it up tomorrow.

Activities: The youth had a combined activity this week. They went to a member's farm where they had a devotional and then played a game of sardines. Because of travel time, they finished later than usual so that was one of the nights I got to bed later than I wanted. Last night there was a RS activity. I went to that even though I was really tired...I just didn't stay a long time, but that still means I was up later than usual. The activity was at a ward member's house and we had a bonfire and just visited and had snacks, including s'mores. It was nice and the drive out to the house, which is in the country, was beautiful. 

Temple: Frank did his usual Tuesday evening temple shift. I went this morning and did initiatories. 

Frank needed a couple of things from a computer store that's in between the temple and home, so I stopped on my way home to get those for him. 

Weather: After lots of clouds and rain last week, we really enjoyed having lots of beautiful sunshine this week. It is cooling down, too. The days are cooler but still pleasant. The mornings are getting colder and we had a few mornings that were in the 40s. For the bonfire activity last night I wore a coat and was very glad to have it...I was still a little cold, even with my coat on. I started noticing a few trees with leaves turning colors this week. Not really weather, but the Northern Lights were visible in our area last night. We didn't get to see them but Frank and I both saw photos that local friends posted on Facebook. I think it was late at night, after we went to bed. (Or who knows? Maybe they were visible at 1:00 am when I was awake, but I didn't go outside.)

Seth's work: He worked this afternoon, but that's the only day this week he had to work. Since he has lots of college application stuff to do, it's just as well. When I picked him up today, he told me that the general manager he's been working with most days that he's worked is gone and there's a new general manager for his store now. He doesn't know if the former manager transferred to another store or quit or got let go. 

Our engagement anniversary: Tomorrow is the 33rd anniversary of the day we got engaged. We got engaged on Saturday, October 12, 1991. It was BYU homecoming weekend too (we went to the football game). This year our anniversary falls on a Saturday and it's BYU homecoming weekend. Kind of fun! 

Frank's calling: Frank thought he was going to be gone a lot of the day tomorrow doing some tech stuff for a Church meeting, but he found out tonight that he doesn't have to be there for the meeting. He did help set up a bunch of things tonight, though.

Hurricane Follow Up: There's still a lot of recovery going on in Frank's parents area. His parents ended up having to get a new water heater because their old one was damaged by flooding. Meanwhile, a lot of his mom's extended family live in between Tampa and Orlando, so they were hit by Hurricane Milton this week. They are all okay, though. Lots of trees down and their power is still out. 

That's all I've got this week!

Weekly Review October 4 '24

Happy Birthday to Shellie!

I don't feel like I have any right to complain about the weather when I see all the destruction and suffering caused by Hurricane Helene, but I will mention that it has been cloudy and / or raining almost constantly the last week. We saw the sun a little bit yesterday, and it was so nice!! Today we are back to gloomy clouds. I read about a commet that is currently visible in the sky in the early mornings and I was excited to look for it because I am actually up at that time, but it was super cloudy every morning this week so I never got the chance to see it. I'm kind of sad about that.

Overall this was a pretty good week, though, so sorry to start out with complaints. On Saturday Frank's sister Dawn was able to get into Brevard and confirm that his parents are okay. They had some flooding in their basement that has damaged their water heater but overall they are okay and have what they need. We are very grateful that they are all right! Frank was able to talk to his dad on Monday and his mom yesterday. Their power was restored on Sunday, cell service on Monday and their home phone by Thursday. They say there are trees down everywhere and lots of roads are closed but food and other supplies have been able to get in so they are okay. 

Saturday was a really busy day for me. I was trying to get Seminary lessons prepared but Seth also needed help completing a form called a "Senior Brag Sheet" which will help with his letters of recommendation for college applications. The BYU game was also on...finally a game at a decent time instead of the middle of the night...and I wanted to watch it. Anyway, I went downstairs to try to work on lessons but Seth followed me down there to ask questions and get help. I finally gave up on getting lessons done for the time being and devoted myself to helping him and also tried to watch some of the football game. Seth finally got his brag sheet done about an hour before he had to leave for work. Frank took him to work and I went back to working on lessons, while checking the score of the game periodically. I did manage to get a plan figured out for both lessons before I had to stop. 

We spent the evening taking care of a disabled member of our ward, as I mentioned we were going to do last week. We gave her medicine, fed her dinner, and then brought her to our house for a while (her parents said she really likes to going to new places...not just staying home all the time). Frank was feeling a bit sick to his stomach (medicine side effects) so he lay down for a while. I sat on the couch with Genny and watched part of a movie with her. She is very sweet and needs cuddles! When it was closer to her bedtime, we took her back home and gave her medicine. Frank went to pick up Seth from work and I helped Genny get ready for bed. Frank came back in time to help me get her up the stairs to bed and stayed until her parents got home about 30 minutes later. Going in, I was a little anxious about staying with her but everything went fine and it was actually kind of nice...Genny has a very sweet spirit about her.

Sunday was busy because I had quite a bit of lesson prep to do...I had plans but I needed to create Power Point presentations and make copies and things like that. One of Frank's clients had some serious issues that he had to take care of onsite so he was gone for a while. He did get back in time to take Seth to mission prep class so I was able to go to bed a little earlier.

Monday was also busy for me because in the afternoon I went to visit a friend and helped her work on a housing application. (She's been homeless...moving from one hotel to another or living with friends or family members...for 5 years. We're trying to help her find a place of her own to live.) That evening there was a meeting at the high school for seniors and their parents so we went to that. The meeting was all about applying for colleges...the process has changed a lot, even since Jared graduated from high school. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were mostly business as usual (no extra events). I taught Seminary on Monday and Tuesday and both of those lessons went well. Tuesday Frank had his temple shift and Seth had a YM activity. I took Seth to YM and stayed at the church in a quiet room and worked on one of my Seminary lessons for next week. Since Tuesday was the first day of October, I switched the decoration on our front door, put out new S&P shakers, and switched the pillow covers from September to October:

On Wednesday I did some sewing...I got one of the January pillow cover quilt blocks sewn:

I also worked on next week's Seminary lessons and managed to get messy plans completed for both of them. I still need to fine tune my plans and then create Power Point slides and so forth. That's the easy part, though...creating the plan is the challenging part. I should be able to get the rest done in the next few days.

On Thursday there was no school because they get off for some Jewish holidays and it was Rosh Hashanah. A few of the youth in our ward went to the temple to do baptisms. (Not an official ward temple trip...just a few friends deciding to go together.) I could have sent Seth with someone else but I thought this would be a good opportunity for him to get in some driving practice and hours, so I went with him and he drove to the temple and back. He did a good job and can now claim that he successfully drove on the Capitol Beltway! It was nice to go to the temple even though I was just an observer. 

This morning Frank and my team teacher's husband came to Seminary and cooked breakfast for the class (pancakes, sausages, and fruit). 

The kids really enjoyed that. After going home and taking a quick nap,  I met with my team teacher and another member of our ward who is going to be a guest teacher for our class in a few weeks to help her plan. She is blind so teaching will be a bit tricky for her but she asked to teach and really wants to do it so we are working with her to make it happen. 

In between everything else, I finished reading the book for book chat this week. I liked it overall. I have been encouraging Seth to work on his college applications and he did work on that a little bit this week but not as much as I would have liked. The application for the Church schools is due November 1st, so that deadline is looming and that is where we are focusing our efforts right now. He may apply a few other places but their deadlines are later so we can work on those after the Church schools application is done.

Seth is meeting with his counselor this afternoon to ask some college application questions and then he will be going to work so I will probably need to pick him up soon. That is all the news from our neck of the woods.