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.