I don't feel like there's a lot to report this week, but maybe I will think of more things as I go along.
Last Saturday (the 1st) started out with all three of us getting haircuts. Frank did some work for clients and did a repair on our refrigerator. Seth mentioned Friday evening that there was an area of the kitchen floor that was wet but I didn't think much of it because sometimes an ice cube will get knocked onto the floor and melt, leaving a puddle. On Saturday morning, however, I noticed this same area was still wet. There wasn't a huge puddle or anything, but when we investigated, we could tell that water was leaking from under the refrigerator. We pulled it away from the wall and Frank discovered that there was a tiny leak in the water line that runs from the sink to the ice maker / water dispenser.
Fortunately, the leak was near the end of the line that attatches to the refrigerator, so Frank was able to cut that part off and replace the piece that goes on the end and reattatch it to the refrigerator and that fixed the problem. He's really glad that he didn't have to pull out and replace the whole water line, and I'm really glad that he is so good at fixing things.
I kept busy all day on Saturday with a lot of different tasks. I prepared Power Point slides for my 3 Seminary lessons, practiced ukulele, bought a plane ticket for Utah, and researched the possibility of going to Palmyra in June, after the BFJ family reunion in Kirtland. It was also the first day of February, so I replaced the sign on our front door, switched out salt & pepper shakers, and put the February pillow covers onto the couch throw pillows.
I also sewed together one of the April quilt blocks (and finished listening to the First Vision Joseph Smith Papers Podcast while I did that.):
I bought a plane ticket for Utah because I'm going to go there in March to help Mom file her tax return...and of course visit with her and with my boys and other family members too! Amy will be coming then too. I will only be there for a few days, but I'm really looking forward to it. Plane tickets are really expensive right now (about $800 roundtrip on most airlines) so I decided to try a new airline called Breeze that has flights from Dulles to Provo. A number of people in my ward have flown on that airline to Provo and they have had good experiences with it, and the cost is a lot less than all the other airlines. The base price is very low and you can choose to pay more by adding on things like checked baggage or extra legroom. I ended up getting one checked bag and extra legroom (they come together...what I really wanted was to be able to check a bag)...and the price was still almost half what I would have paid anywhere else. On Sunday I asked two of my friends to substitute in Seminary for me while I'm gone (they only need to be the extra adult...my team teacher teaches on the days I will be gone) and they both said yes. I also let my supervisor at VITA know last week that I would be gone that week in March. I may need to get one more substitute for Seminary but it depends on whether or not we get a guest teacher that week. So I mostly have all the details worked out for that trip, and I am excited to go!
Sunday we had church, of course; we also had family night (the lesson part) and I took Seth to mission prep that evening. (Well, actually Seth drove there and back but I had to be in the car with him, of course.)
The rest of the week was somewhat uneventful, but we did have a few things going on. Seth worked on Monday evening (as usual). We did the activity / treat part of family night that afternoon before he went to work. We played a game called Forbidden Island, which is a group cooperation kind of game...you're trying to collect four treasures and get off the island before it sinks. It was close, but we did win the game and felt proud of ourselves. 😆 My team teacher and I had a phone meeting where we planned the next month of lessons, so of course we had a snow day later in the week which means our plans are already messed up a little (and there's more snow predicted next week...)
Tuesday was different than usual because the temple is closed so Frank came home after work instead of going to the temple for his shift. Seth also didn't have a YM activity because this Sunday is our Ward Conference and the youth leaders had visits with stake leaders that evening. I worked on Seminary stuff that evening and got one of next week's lessons planned. Tuesday's Seminary lesson went great, by the way...so many wonderful comments and participation from almost everyone! But just so I don't get too comfortable, on Wednesday morning we had very low attendance and almost everyone who came was half asleep! 😂 I'm grateful that I am at the point that an off day doesn't really bother me!
I had my VITA shift on Wednesday and it was really busy and went by fast. It was one of those days where every return I did ended up with unique issues so they took longer to complete than usual, and it seemed like all the other volunteers were encountering the same thing so we got a bit behind in the morning but things settled down and we got caught up by the time I left in the early afternoon. My first appointment actually was fairly straightforward, but the taxpayer wanted to tell me her life story so it took a long time to get through the intake part of the appointment. The second taxpayer I helped didn't have a form we needed so she had to reschedule, but I spent several minutes going through her documents before I realized she didn't have one of the documents I needed. The third taxpayer I helped had very little income because she had cancer and was sick / getting treatment most of the year. (She is doing better now.) In talking, she mentioned she has an identical twin sister and I told her that I do too, and she gave me a fist bump. 😁 I meet so many people through VITA that have had really hard lives or are in really difficult situations...it's always very humbling!
On Wednesday evening the school district sent out a message that school would be delayed 2 hours the next morning, with a re-evaluation in the morning. This wasn't too surprising because we were predicted to have freezing rain overnight and in the morning. It was really nice to know ahead of time that I did not have to get up in the morning! Because of the predicted ice storm, I had also decided to go grocery shopping Wednesday evening instead of Thursday morning (as I usually do). Frank went with me to help me.
It was really nice to sleep in a bit on Thursday morning. I was still up before 6:00, but that is sleeping in for me! Frank worked from home because of the icy roads. At 7:00 am we got another notice from the school district that school was cancelled. The roads cleared up before the day was over, but the freezing rain was still coming down until around 11:00. Seth enjoyed having a day off, of course. He did go out that evening...the missionaries asked him to go to a lesson with them at 5:00 so he did that. Frank took him to the lesson and waited nearby until he was done and brought him back home. I think it's really good for Seth to have the opportunity to go out with the missionaries, so I'm glad they asked him. I had all the usual things to do on Thursday (except grocery shopping) but I had some free time and watched a few episodes of a show on Netflix. I worked a little bit on another Seminary lesson but haven't finished planning it yet. I will finish both lessons today or tomorrow, but it is fairly likely that I will only teach one of them next week because the chance of more snow is pretty high.
Today I can't go to the temple as usually do because it is closed, so I am getting this post done a lot earlier than I usually do. I already have the budget caught up so I should have some time this afternoon to work on Seminary lessons or sew (or both).
That's all the news from us!
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