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.