Weekly Review April 25 '25

Well, here I am once again...trying to remember what I did this past week!

Last Friday (the 18th) I participated in an Easter Cantata (musical program). The three wards that meet in our building did this together...each ward provided a couple of musical numbers. I sang with our ward choir (although it was more like a small group because so many of our ward choir members were out of town for spring break). We sang a Shawna Edwards song called "This is Jesus". I think it went pretty well. Two of the YW in our ward had solos in this song and they did a great job. I enjoyed all the other musical numbers and afterwards there was refreshments. Frank and Seth came and they seemed to enjoy it, too.

On Saturday (the 19th) I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah (we tried a Mexican place that starts with the letter L, since that's the letter we were on...it was fine, but nothing special). Seth had to work that evening and we had the Elders over for dinner. I did the usual Saturday chores, worked on Seminary lessons, and did some sewing. I got the flower pieces basted and pinned to the block.

Sunday was Easter, of course. I had to get to church early for choir practice (we sang 3 songs in Sacrament meeting) and Frank had to get there early to set up a broadcast for one of the other wards. Most of our Sacrament meeting was musical numbers, and it was really nice. A couple of choir members got back in town on Saturday, so we had a bigger choir than on Friday, which was nice. 

After church, we hurried home to change and put together a dessert to take to Lori's house for dinner. We actually didn't eat at her house...they invited a number of families and we met at the park next to their house and had a yummy potluck dinner. They also had an egg hunt for the kids and a few Easter crafts. It was a little bit chilly in the shade (mostly because it was a bit windy) but nice in the sun. (The back of my neck got a little sunburned!) I am proud of myself for conconcting a dessert that eveyone loved. I wanted to make strawberry shortcake, but for a lot of people. I remembered that we have a recipe for a chocolate layered dessert that is always a hit, so I adapted that recipe to make a strawberry shortcake trifle kind of thing. I replaced the chocolate cake with pound cake and the chocolate pudding with vanilla pudding, and kept the layers of whipped cream that the original recipe calls for. Then instead of layers of crushed chocolate bars, I used sliced strawberries mixed with a little bit of sugar. It was really yummy and the whole large bowl disappeared fast and everyone said how good it was. I will have to make that again sometime!

We didn't do Easter baskets this year...Seth and Frank said they were both fine with just putting all the candy together in a bowl that we all shared. I tried to buy less candy this year too, but was not really successful. I asked them what kinds of candy they wanted the most and only bought those kinds but we all have different favorites, so it still ended up being a lot. Oh well, I tried!! We still have quite a bit left. 

Frank got sick on Sunday evening, unfortunately. He got to sick to his stomach, but he also came down with a fever. It hit very suddenly...so strange! He still wasn't feeling well on Monday morning, so he took a sick day.

Monday was the last day of spring break. I did all the usual chores...grocery shopping, laundry, vacuuming...and also finished up Seminary lessons, helped Seth finish an English assignment, and did some sewing. I appliqued the flower pieces onto the quilt block and also sewed on all the border strips. 

Seth worked on Monday evening. On Tuesday, it was back to the regular routine for all of us. Thankfully, Frank was feeling better. Not only was he able to go to work, but he was also able to do his shift at the temple. He had asked his shift supervisor to please give him assignments that don't require a lot of standing or walking, which really helped. He worked at the initiatory desk all evening. Meanwhile, Seminary went well and Seth had school as usual. I had a doctor appointment that morning...met with a gastroenterologist to set up a colonoscopy and got all the info, but still haven't set up the procedure because they say since I have A fib, I have to get cardio clearance from my cariologist first. Still waiting to hear back from the cardiologist. Besides finishing all the regular chores, I also marked the flower quilt block and got both quilt blocks ready for quilting:

After dinner, Seth and I went to a LaCrosse game because two of the boys in our Seminary class are on the team. Well, actually three of them are on the team but one of them broke his hand at the beginning of the season so he can't play. He helped with the score keeping, though. This was the first time I had ever been to a LaCrosse game and it was pretty interesting. I enjoyed seeing the boys in my class play. The two boys in my class are number 11 and number 15:

And this is number 11's twin brother (the one with the broken hand), acting as a scorekeeper (he's wearing a white tshirt):

I'm sorry he broke his hand and had to miss playing this season, but it has definitely made it easier for us to tell he and his brother apart! I admit that I just look for the cast on the hand so I know who is who. (They are both really quiet and they usually sleep through the whole class, so I haven't had a lot of opportunity to get to know them very well.) After the game I took Seth to YM and worked on some Seminary stuff until he was ready to come home.

Wednesday was our 33rd anniversary. Frank took the day off work so when I got home from Seminary, we went to breakfast. Oh, and while I was at Seminary he went out and bought some flowers and a card for me, which was waiting for me when I got home. 

On the way to breakfast, Frank got pulled over because he didn't stop behind the line before turning right on a red light (he did stop before turning, just not behind the line). Thankfully, the officer just gave him a warning...we were happy about that!! We enjoyed spending the day together, which included taking a long nap! We had family night that evening (getting to be the normal night because Seth usually works on Mondays and Frank has his temple shift on Tuesdays). 

Yesterday Seth was tired and didn't make it to Seminary. I was busy all day with just the usual things, plus I planned one of next week's Seminary lessons and read through the second one and I did some quilting. I have done a lot of the quilting for the flower block, but haven't taken photos of my progress. That evening, Seth and I went to a talent show to watch another boy in our Seminary class sing a solo. He sang "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" from Les Miserables, and he did a fantastic job! The talent show was two hours long and I really didn't want to go to the whole thing but fortunately he knew that he would be one of the last performers, so we didn't go over until the second hour. Our timing turned out to be perfect...we saw the end of one act, then there was one other performance, and then the boy in our class sang. After he sang, we left, so we were only there for about 20 minutes. I'm so glad I got to see him perform, but it didn't take all evening!

Today I went to the temple. I couldn't get an appointment at my usual time (10:00 am) so I went in the afternoon instead. That worked out okay...I got most of the budgeting done before I left and I also got to take a short nap, which I really needed! It's always wonderful to be in the temple and the temple grounds are particularly beautiful right now. 

The traffic coming home wasn't so great, but I got home in time to see Seth and Lori head off for prom. (They are going to the prom at her high school...Brunswick High). Lori's mom brought her to our house and we walked down to the river to take some photos:

Lori's mom dropped them off at a restaurant and ran some errands while they ate and then took them to the prom. We will be leaving soon to pick them up...we'll take Lori home on our way home. 

In between everything else, I have been trying to watch as many episodes of Madam Secretary as possible. I can't remember if I mentioned last week that we found out it is leaving Netflix soon so Frank and I are both trying to finish watching it before it's gone. We decided that we would need to watch it separately because it's a lot harder for us to find times we can both watch together than to watch it on our own. Frank is way ahead of me now (not surprising!) but hopefully I will get it done in time.

I keep forgetting to mention that after Frank interviewed for those three positions at work, they decided to put the whole thing on hold because of "budget restrictions" and other factors. He finally found out yesterday that he didn't get any of those positions, but they said he did a great job in the interviews and are encouraging him to interview for the next round of positions when they become available. (Not sure when that will be.) Frank is actually kind of glad because those positions would have been a lot less flexible hours than the position he has now. Probably for the best! We'll see what happens next. Originally, the new organizational structure was going to be in place by June 1st, but everything has been slowed down now. 

That's everything I can think of for this week.

Weekly Review April 18 '25

 We've been on spring break all week and it is starting to feel a bit like spring, finally. We've still had a few cooler days and a few nights that we had freeze advisories, but today it's in the high 70s and it looks like we have highs in the 70s and 80s for the foreseeable future. We've also had some sunny days, which has been nice after so much rain. Our neighbor's backyard looks nice and the common area grass is really green:

I've definitely enjoyed getting extra sleep this week and the week has gone by fast. I don't feel very ready to go back to early mornings, but we are on the home stretch and only have about 5 weeks left of Seminary. (We're still waiting to get official word on what day will be the last day.) 

As usual, I can't remember much about last Saturday (the 12th) at this point. I got my haircut in the morning and Seth worked that evening. Those are the two things I have on my calendar. I remember that I cleaned the kitchen floor and practiced ukulele and I read through one of my Seminary lessons for next week. I also did some sewing--I got the main part of the other quilt block for May sewed together. (The butterfly body was not sewed on at that point, and the border strips were also not sewed on--I just put those things next to the quilt block so that I could see how it was going to look after being sewed together.)

I had to sew the butterfly body twice because the directions were incorrect. I got almost done with it and realized that it wasn't going to work. When I read the dirctions, I thought one part of them sounded strange, but I trusted the directions and followed them. I should have trusted my instincts, because the way I thought I should have done it was the correct way! 

Sunday was really busy with church, choir practice, and mission prep class (and dinner preparations sandwiched in between all that). Since I didn't have to get up early on Monday morning, I took Seth to mission prep (well, he actually did the driving) and I let him stay for a while afterwards for socializing. Lori came upstairs with him when it was time to leave and invited us to come to her house for dinner on Easter, so we will be doing that. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine (but a little windy and nippy):

On Monday morning I had an appointment to get three immunizations...pneumonia, shingles, and a tetanus booster. I got two in the left arm and one in the right arm, so both of my arms have been sore all week but they are mostly better now. Both the pneumonia and shingles vaccines can cause flu-like symptoms, so I was prepared to not feel well for a few days. I actually felt fine on Monday (other than slightly sore arms), so I got all the regular chores done, worked a little on one Seminary lesson, and did some more sewing. I got the border strips sewed onto the butterfly block:

That bird identifying app I got on my phone has led me to be more aware when I am hearing birds singing, and on Monday I thought I heard a woodpecker. (Not singing, hammering.) I was able to spot it in one of the trees behind our house and got a few pictures. My app identified it as the Pileated Woodpecker:

The woodpecker was actually pecking on the side of the birdhouse, for some reason.

I didn't sleep really well on Monday night; probably mostly because both arms hurt so it was hard to find a comfortable position (especially since I am normally a side sleeper). When I woke up around 6:00 am, I didn't feel very well (headache, achy all over) so I ate some breakfast, took some medicine, and lay back down. I was surprised when I woke up again and it was 8:30. I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday resting because I didn't feel well either day. Mostly I was achy all over and felt really exhausted. I felt a little better on Wednesday than I did on Tuesday and I was able to get a few light chores done on Wednesday. I also read through my second Seminary lesson for next week and got both lessons planned. (I worked on Power Point slides yesterday and completed the first lesson; still have about half of the Power Point slides to make for the second lesson.) We had family night on Wednesday evening because Seth worked on Monday evening.  

By yesterday I felt mostly back to normal besides being a little tired and my arms were still slightly sore. I slept in every day this week and didn't exercise except for Monday, but next week I will be able to get back into a normal routine. On Wednesday evening after family night I sewed the butterfly body onto the block and last night I started basting the edges of the flower petals on the flower block. (I haven't taken photos of my progress though.) Once the edges are basted, I will applique the flower pieces onto the block and then sew on the border strips. After that I need to do some marking on the flower block (I already marked quilting lines on the butterfly block), cut out batting and backing pieces, and get the blocks ready to quilt. I only have about 10 days until May, but hopefully I will be able to get these pillow covers done by the end of April.

Seth didn't have a YM activity on Tuesday evening because of spring break, but yesterday some of the youth who aren't out of town had a temple trip, so Seth was able to participate in that. He has been working on a paper proposal for his English class and studying for his CTC certification exam a little bit every day this week, but mostly he has been enjoying himself. On Tuesday he, Lori, and a couple of other friends went to see the Minecraft movie. Frank took him to the theater and back, which I really appreciated since I wasn't feeling well that day. This morning I took Seth to get a haircut. (He did the driving again...I am making him drive most places we go so he can get plenty of practice.) Yesterday when we met at the church for the temple trip, we went a little early so he could practice backing into parking spaces for a while. He needs to be able to do that for his driver's test. He did well a few times and not so well a few more times, so he needs to keep practicing.

Frank's legs have been slowly improving but they still hurt most of the time (just not as severe as at first). He has been able to work from home most days this week, which helps. He did go in yesterday all day, though. 

Besides everything else, I read a book this past week called A Place to Hang the Moon. One of my friends at book chat loaned it to me to read. It was a sweet book about some children who were evacuated from London during WWII who were trying to find a new home. I really enjoyed it. I also started reading The Screwtape Letters. I'm not very far into it yet, but it's interesting. On Monday I ordered a suit for Seth (from Mr. Mac, through Tanner). He needs black pants for graduation and his only pair of dress pants is light gray, so I got him a black suit. He's been wanting to get a suit, so he is excited about it. Yesterday I ordered some photo graduation cards. His graduation is less than 6 weeks away...hard to believe!

I've been enjoying the Easter study plan in the Gospel Library app this week also. It's been a great way to spiritually prepare for Easter! 

I have been able to talk to all three of the older boys this week. Jared & Jessie just returned from a trip to Utah / Nevada for Jessie's sister's wedding on Monday. Jessie is doing really well in school and Jared has completed his courses and applied to get his associates degree (through BYU-Idaho online) so should get that soon. Tanner's car transmission went out a few days ago, so that's not good news for him. He just finished his school semester at Ensign College and he passed all his classes. He will be starting the next semester at the beginning of May. He has all his GE credits done and will now be working on a certificate to complete his associate's degree. Scott has been in Las Vegas this week for a work conference / training. He's pretty stressed about his job right now, though, so please keep him in your prayers.

That is the update for this week.

Weekly Review April 11 '25

There was a lot going on this week but I'll try to keep this somewhat brief because it's really late and I want to go to bed soon. 

Last Friday evening I picked Frank up at the airport--he was returning from his Las Vegas trip. His right leg started hurting a lot when he was at the airport in Las Vegas waiting to board his flight. At first I thought it was hurting because he was overcompensating because his left leg hurt, but based on the sudden onset of pain and the similarities to how his left leg feels, we think he probably has a torn calf muscle in his right leg now too. After being in a lot of pain all weekend, he went to the doctor on Monday. Our doctor sent him to get imaging done...our insurance requires a scan for blood clots first before doing an MRI, so he had that done. That imaging didn't show anything (which it wouldn't, for a torn calf muscle...it doesn't show soft tissue damage). Our doctor decided that rather than send him in for another MRI, he wants Frank to try some physical therapy and see if that helps. Frank doesn't really want to do PT, but maybe he will change his mind. In the meantime, he was able to work from home all week, thankfully, which meant he could stay off his legs as much as possible. Obviously, it's a lot harder getting around with two hurting legs instead of just one. He feels like his left leg is improving a bit, at least.

Meanwhile, we did enjoy General Conference last weekend. On Saturday we had the missionaries over to watch the first session and to eat lunch with us. I had sandwich fixings and some pizza for lunch, plus we had lots of snacks. The missionaries were really appreciative of all the food! I planned crock meals for dinner on both Saturday and Sunday so I didn't have to do any cooking during Conference sessions. So many great talks! I haven't had much chance to start reviewing them yet, but I will be doing that for sure. Before and in between Conference sessions, I was able to finish up most of the lesson preparations for this week's two Seminary lessons. I didn't get the Power Point slides made for the second lesson, but I had it planned out, at least, and finished everything else on Monday. Both lessons went okay. I definitely enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to prepare any lessons this week! It's a good thing, too, because I'm not sure when I would have fit that in, with everything else that's been going on this week. 

On Monday, Seth worked as he usually does on Mondays. He went in an hour earlier than usual, though, because they called and asked him if he was available to do that. For some reason, Seth woke up at 3:30 am that morning (which is the same time that I get up) and he was wide awake, so just stayed up and he was fine all day and didn't seem tired at all. I suspected that it would all catch up to him on Tuesday morning, and I was right...he was dead tired Tuesday morning and didn't get up for Seminary. Since I didn't have to work on Seminary lessons this week, I had time on Tuesday to finish our income taxes and file them. I also filed the annual report for the business. Yesterday I got Seth's income tax returns filed. 

The youth activity Tuesday evening was honoring the youth who are graduating this year, and the parents were invited to attend as well. Frank had asked not to work at the temple that evening so that he could attend the activity, and it's just as well since he wouldn't have been able to do that anyway because of his legs. (Hopefully he will improve enough that he can go back to working at the temple soon.) Anyway, they asked us to send in photos weeks ago and at the activity they had made a poster with the photos for each of the graduating seniors, which everyone signed. They also asked us (the parents) to share a few thoughts about our child, read a short tribute from our bishop for each youth (he wasn't able to be there), and they gave a gift to each of the seniors too. Afterwards, there were refreshments and time to visit. It was a really nice evening.

Seth's poster:

Five of the graduating Seniors (there are seven total...two of them weren't there):

They wanted their photo taken together because they realized they were wearing matching shirts:

On Wednesday I did my last VITA shift for this tax season. It was really busy again (understandably). The first lady I helped was not there to file her own taxes...she was there to file taxes for someone who had passed away during 2024. I had never done one like that before. On Wednesday evening I had book club. We discussed The Frangipani Tree Mystery and now we are reading The Screwtape Letters. 

Yesterday morning Seth wasn't feeling well and he convinced me to take him back home after Seminary. He did do some school work that morning. After a few hours he was feeling better so he went to his CTC class. That evening I went to a recital at Seth's high school because two of the youth in my Seminary class were playing in it. Seth went with me to that. One of the boys played a solo (on the French horn) and another boy played in a group (on the saxophone). Then both of them played in another group. The recital included a variety of solo and group musical numbers by students singing and playing various instruments including trumpet, guitar, electric guitar, saxophone, piccolo, violin, harp, and vibraphone. I've probably forgotten a few! I was pretty impressed with most of them. The program was long, though...nearly 2 hours...so I got to bed really late. 

The boy in the white shirt holding the saxophone is one of the youth in my class, and the boy holding the French horn is the other youth in my class:

Seth with Wesley (French horn player) after the show. He is one of the graduating seniors who wasn't able to come to the activity on Tuesday night.

Today I have been going all day long. After Seminary I was home long enough to eat breakfast and then I went to the temple.

The temple grounds looked beautiful even though it was raining:

I went straight from the temple to a restaurant where a group of us were having lunch to celebrate a friend's retirement. This friend was in our ward until the boundary change last year. My Seminary team teacher actually set up the lunch but then she couldn't go at the last minute because her dog was sick and she had to take him to the vet. We did have a small group come and I enjoyed it. I was pretty tired by the time I got home from that, though. The restaurant was 20 minutes north of Frederick so I didn't get home until after 3:00. I tried to get some things done for about an hour and then decided I would be more productive if I took a nap. After a 90 minute nap I felt much better, but that explains why I am writing this post so late. After I woke up, we got some pizza for dinner and then I updated the budget before starting on this post. 

Seth hasn't been feeling very well today either. Yesterday he had a stomach ache. Today he is complaining about a sore throat and some congestion. He went to Seminary but slept through most of it. He did go to school, though. He thinks maybe it's just allergies, but we don't know for sure. 

The weather has been wet and cold all week. It's really hard to believe it's April. We've had lows in the 30s and highs in the 50s all week. On Tuesday it was really windy which made it feel super cold and that night we had a freeze warning overnight--it was only in the high 20s when we went to Seminary that morning. I've been wearing my heavy winter coat all week! When I look out the window, it looks like spring with blossoming trees, green grass, and tulips and other flowers blooming, but it definitely doesn't feel like spring when I walk outside!! We've had a lot of rain too so we haven't seen the sun much this week. It rained most of the day today. I was planning to go to a tennis tournament tonight that a few of the youth in my class were playing in, but it got cancelled because of the rain. I admit I am happy it got cancelled since I am so tired! 

I'm probably forgetting something but I really want to go to sleep now so I will sign off until next week.

Weekly Review April 4 '25

 It's April and we have been having plenty of April showers the last few days. We've also had a lot of ups and downs in temperatures...we had a few really warm days at the beginning of the week (so warm that the house got really hot but I didn't want to switch over to A/C because I knew it was going to get cold again.) And it did...down into the 30s one night. I definitely needed my coat for a few days. Now it is starting to warm up again. Typical spring weather! The trees around here kind of exploded into bloom this past week and it's so beautiful. 

This is our next door neighbor's tree; I have a love / hate relationship with it. This tree is very beautiful, but it also drops leaves, flower petals, buds, etc. all over my front walk which then get on our shoes and come off all over the floors in the house. We also have to rake leaves in our yard because of this tree--we don't even have a tree in our yard! There are trees like this all over Frederick as well as trees with all different shades of pink. I wish I could get photos of all the beautiful sights I see as I am driving around. The last few days, we have had stormy skies and the white and pink blossoms next to the gray / blue sky look amazing!

Another thing I love about spring is hearing all the birds singing. Last week Jared mentioned an app that Jessie has on her phone that will help identify a bird by it's song. I thought that sounded cool, so I asked Jessie to let me know the name of the app. (It's called Merlin, if you're interested.) I got the app on my phone a few days ago and it is kind of addictive! I hear birds singing and I have to go outside to record them and see what the app pulls up. I have heard 12 different kinds of birds so far. 

Well, on to the events of this past week. On Saturday morning I went to a RS activity. It was a cake decorating activity and it was a lot of fun. We did a similar activity about 6 years ago and I really enjoyed that one, too. When we arrived, we were asked to sit at tables according to which month we were born in. Then we had a spiritual thought and learned some cake decorating tips. After that, each table had a cake to decorate. Since there weren't a ton of people there, some of the tables combined but we had three people at the July table. We decided to make a flag cake in honor of our birth month. It was fun! At the end, our bishopric came and judged the cakes. Our cake got second place. 😁

These are my friends Rebekah and Cecily, who also have July birthdays.

Here are some of the other cakes:

Here's a better view of our cake:

This is the cake that won 1st place. The bishopric said it made them think of "the covenant path". 😇

Table full of cakes:

At the end, we all got to eat a piece of cake and since there wers so many cakes, a bunch of the extras were given to ward members in need. 

Bragging note: when we did this activity last time, the June / July table won 1st place for a cake we decorated to look like a watermelon, so we July girls are 2 for 2 creating winning cakes! 😄

I ran a few errands on the way home from the activity and then spent most of the rest of the day working on Seminary lessons. I really struggled with the second lesson and never really did get it to a point that I was happy with it, but it went okay. 

Sunday morning we went to church as usual. That afternoon, Frank was leaving for a business trip. He went to a convention in Las Vegas and he has been gone all week. He is actually on the plane now, waiting to take off for his homeward journey. I will be really glad to see him tonight! Frank usually drives himself to the airport and back when he goes on business trips, but because of his leg, I offered to drive him there and pick him up this time. I knew that would mean less walking for him. We left for the airport a few hours after we got home from church. After I dropped Frank off at the airport, I drove straight to the church and got there just in time for choir practice. We are working on songs for Easter Sunday and for an Easter Cantata that the three wards that meet in our building are doing. We are singing three songs for Easter and one for the Cantata. After choir, I came home and finished making dinner. Seth doesn't usually have mission prep class on fast Sunday, but he told me at dinner he had just found out that they were having it that evening. (I think they decided to skip this Sunday instead, since it's General Conference.) Seth's friend Henry wasn't going either so he couldn't catch a ride with him, but since Seth could tell I was really tired, he said he would skip mission prep that week. I was exhausted and really couldn't face another drive and staying up late, so I was grateful that he was willing to take the week off. 

I didn't sleep great on either Sunday or Monday nights. They weren't terrible...I was not lying awake for hours either night...but I woke up briefly 3 or 4 times each night and I also woke up about 2:15 on Tuesday morning and didn't go back to sleep before the alarm went off at 3:30. The house was hot, too, as I mentioned. That probably contributed to my restlessness. I slept with a fan on all night and Seth slept in the guest room those two nights because it was too hot in his loft bed, up by the ceiling. Those two nights of restless sleep meant that I was really tired on Tuesday. I decided to take a nap around 9:30 that morning. I usually set an alarm so I won't sleep too long, but this time I didn't set one and I was shocked when I woke up 3 hours later! I definitely didn't expect to sleep that long. That meant that the rest of the day I was insanely busy trying to get everything else done. Seth decided to skip the YM activity--again, he could see that I was really busy and stressed and knew it would save me time and I'd get to bed earlier if he didn't go to the activity and he wasn't particularly interested in what they were doing for the activity. I told him I don't want to make a habit of skipping activities (and classes, meetings) but I was really glad I didn't have to take the time to take him to the church and pick him back up. I was still up pretty late trying to get everything done. Besides usual chores (cleaning bathrooms and planning next week's meals), I was also trying to compose an email for the Seminary parents and of course there's always Seminary lessons to prepare. I wanted to work on our income taxes, too, but I ran out of time for that. In the middle of everything else, Tanner called me, so I talked to him too. (Always happy to talk to my boys!)

I guess I kind of skipped Monday, so I'll got back to that. I had a friend visiting from Utah (she used to live here) so I set up a lunch with her and several of her friends. I enjoyed it, but it was an awkward set up because there weren't any tables big enough for all of us so we had to sit in two booths, back to back. I didn't really get to talk to the people at the other table from me. Oh well! It was still fun. 

I spent the rest of Monday doing chores and finishing preparations for my Tuesday lesson. I also read through my lessons for next week, but didn't have time to do more than that. Seth worked on Monday afternoon / evening, as he usually does. I thought about going to a Lacrosse game for one of the boys in my Seminary class but the weather forecast looked iffy, so I decided to go another night. That turned out to be a good decision because there was a lot of rain and thunder and the game ended up getting cancelled. I got to talk to Jared that evening instead, and get caught up with him.

Wednesday morning we had a guest teacher in Seminary, which is always fun. We asked the father of one of the boys in our class to teach and he did a great job. After Seminary, I had my tax shift as usual. It was really busy because we are getting close to the end of the tax season and so if people don't bring everything they need to their appointment, rather than ask them to reschedule, we tell them they can come back anytime to get their return completed and we squeeze them in. Very hectic, but it feels good to be helping a lot of people. I helped two elderly widows who are sisters complete their returns and it was really challenging because although they could speak English quite well, it was clear that they don't understand it all that well. (They were Asian; I'm not sure what their native tongue is because--like I said--they didn't understand me or the questions I was asking them very well.) Besides the language barrier, they also couldn't see well at all so I had to fill out their information forms for them. It was crazy, but I finally got everything done. I stayed late to do it, though, and got home at the same time that Seth got home from school. 

Between Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening I managed to get Monday's Seminary lesson planned but still need to make Power Point slides and prepare some other things. I also read through my lesson for Tuesday again and made a rough plan but realized that I couldn't really do serious planning until after this morning's lesson because my topic for Tuesday is really similar to this morning's topic and I was worried I would duplicate too much of what was taught today. I do want to get Monday's lesson completed tonight and as much as I can of Tuesday's lesson too because I won't have much time to work on lessons over the weekend. (Really looking forward to General Conference, though!!) I expect that I may end up doing a lot of Tuesday's lesson prep on Monday, but hopefully I will get a little done tonight or in between Conference sessions. Thankfully, I don't have to prepare any lessons next week because the week after next is spring break. I am definitely ready for a break!! I've been in a bit of Seminary burn out lately.

I planned to focus on our tax returns on Thursday and I did get quite a bit done, but not as much as I would have liked. I had to do some research to try to understand what to do about the old car trade in / new car purchase. I did find some things that helped and most of that is done, I just need Frank to help me finish because he has the detailed information about car mileage and so forth. Besides finishing our income tax returns, I also need to do an information filing for the business (but have to finish the income taxes first because I need information from those for the filing) and I keep forgetting that Seth also needs to file a return so I need to help him with that. Well, he actually isn't required to file since his income from last year was well below the threshhold, but he had taxes withheld by the state so it would be nice for him to get those taxes back. The other thing I did yesterday was I went to a teaching appointment with the missionaries. It didn't go super well, but that's how missionary work is sometimes. 

I actually wasn't feeling too great yesterday--I was tired and had some intestinal issues. I started taking calcium supplements this week and I had the thought to look up any side effects of taking calcium or having too much calcium in the system. (Pretty sure that "thought" was a prompting.) It turns out that some of the side effects of having too much calcium in the system matched what I was feeling, and I'm pretty sure that's why I wasn't feeling great. I've decided I must be getting a decent amount of calcium in my diet, so I'm not going to take as much of the supplement as I was taking. I actually didn't take any today, and I am feeling a lot better. Not sure why my doctor didn't warn me about side effects / "overdose". That would have been nice to know. 

Last night I finally remembered to sit down with Seth and figure out a time for him to take his driver's test. We got an appointment set for early in May. We could have done it as early as next week, but he hasn't been doing a lot of driving lately so we wanted to give him some time to get more practice.

This morning our bishopric made breakfast for the Seminary kids. After Seminary I had a long talk with a mom of one of the Seminary kids and I also got the budgeting done. As I mentioned earlier, Frank is on his way home now, and I will be leaving in a few hours to pick him up. (Seth may come too, and he might do the driving if he does.) I have talked to Frank every day and I think he's had a pretty good week and enjoyed the convention and classes that he took. His leg is still hurting, but not any worse than it was. He took crutches with him and has been getting around with those. Hopefully he will be able to get some more rest once he's home.

That is all of the news from us.