Weekly Review May 23 '25

Just have to start out by saying that I am done with Seminary for this year!! Wednesday was our last official day, but we did meet yesterday and today for the youth who wanted to meet. No more 3:30 am alarm until August. 😄After Seminary today, I updated the attendance and made sure all our records were correct and then locked our class records for this semester. Seminary graduation will be the first Sunday in June and the second Sunday in June I will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting, along with some of the youth in our class, so I do still have those things, but no more lessons to prepare. That's a huge weight off my shoulders. 

We've had quite a bit going on this week. On Saturday morning I got my hair cut. I did the regular Saturday chores, got both of the June quilt blocks marked, and we had the Elders over for dinner. (Seth missed dinner with the Elders because he had to work). We fed the Elders spaghetti and since we didn't want them to get their white shirts dirty, we gave them aprons to wear and also towels to tuck into their collars. Then we had to take photos of them because they looked so funny:

Sunday was busy with choir practice before church (we sang in Sacrament Meeting that day) and that afternoon my team teacher and I had a meeting with the bishop to discuss the Seminary Sacrament Meeting and he also asked us again about next year...how we feel about teaching, etc. Once again, we told him we are willing to teach another year but also told him some pros and cons of continuing. When we finished, he said "I've heard what I need to hear"...whatever that means! I'm going to assume I'm still teaching next year until I hear otherwise. 😂  We had family night on Sunday, including the activity because we knew our evenings were going to be busy this week. We've actually been struggling to have family night consistently lately because Seth always works on Mondays, Frank is at the temple on Tuesdays, and there have been a lot of other activities going on in the evenings lately...so we decided to have family night while we had the chance! We played Mexican train (dominoes) for the activity. We did the same thing last week but it is a long game with a lot of rounds so we continued where we left off last time. (And we still aren't done.) Seth is winning, by far, at this point. After family night, Seth went to mission prep. He could have driven himself there and back but his friend Henry offered to pick him up so he went with his friend.

Monday was Seth's last day of high school. He didn't have to go to the CTC that day (all the dual enrollment classes ended on Friday the 16th) so it was a short day for him. He was happy to come home and play games in the afternoon before going to work that evening. Seth still went to Seminary on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. I taught on Monday, my team teacher taught on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we played a Doctrinal Mastery game and had a nice breakfast. I made a breakfast casserole for that and my team teacher brought some donuts, fruit, and chocolate milk. 

On Tuesday Seth didn't have to go anywhere except I had scheduled him to get a haircut. I was busy with all the usual chores and I also finished preparations for the game we were playing in Seminary the next day and mixed up the breakfast casserole so it would be ready to bake in the morning. I went with Seth to the church that night for activities because I needed to rearrange the tables and chairs (for the game)...Seth helped me. Then I just hung out at the church, reading scriptures and listening to an audio book until Seth was done with his activity. For some reason, my allergies started really acting up that evening...I kept sneezing and my nose was running nonstop! My nose was really red and sore after just a few hours. It was crazy and caused me to feel pretty miserable. I was very happy to get home and go to bed. Fortunately, it seems to have been an isolated allergy attack. I haven't had much trouble the rest of the week.

The weather has still been strange. Tuesday was really nice, but Wednesday and Thursday it rained a lot and the high temperatures were in the high 50s or low 60s, so it felt quite chilly. Everyone was wearing long pants and sweaters...not normal for the middle of May! Today has been a little warmer, although it's still cooler than normal. 

As I already mentioned, Wednesday was the last official day of Seminary. One of our senior boys just got his mission call and on Wednesday morning he told us where he is going. (We all made guesses about where he was going first.) Turns out none of us guessed right. He is going to Ghana Accra West...wow! I actually have a good friend who has a son who served in that mission, so I got my friend and my Seminary boy's mom connected with each other so his mom can ask questions if needed. We gave some gifts to the Seniors in our class:

(The drink is Power Aid) My team teacher actually prepared these gifts...I didn't have to do anything except discuss ideas with her. 

Seth had graduation practices on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. They all started at 8:00 and he had to be there sometime between 7:30 and 8:00, so not much different from a regular school day except that he got out earlier. He could wear regular school clothes to the practices on Wednesday and Friday, but yesterday there was a Senior Awards Ceremony right after the practice and they all had to wear their dress clothes and caps and gowns for that (and for the practice). The awards ceremony was really long...it started at 10:00 and wasn't done until 12:30. I didn't go to it because I didn't think Seth would get any awards, but they had a live stream of the ceremony available so I did watch that while I did other things. Seth didn't get any awards where they read his name, but he did get to stand up a couple of times to be recognized--he's graduating with highest honors for his weighted GPA and he also has a high unweighted GPA and got an award called the principal's award for his participation in college dual enrollment classes. A lot of students got these awards, so they just explained what they were and asked everyone who received them to stand up to be recognized, but didn't read off all their names. The graduation practices on Wednesday and today were both over around 11:30, so Seth had the afternoons off. He did work on Thursday evening though. 

On Wednesday I went with the Elders to a teaching appointment. Originally, it was at 2:00 but it got moved to 5:00. They were meeting with a lady who has come to church a couple of times already. They always meet with her at a park. Fortunately, there's a pavilion there because it was raining most of the day on Wednesday. The lesson went well and I always enjoy being a part of missionary work!

I taught my last Seminary lesson for the year on Thursday morning. (Which I didn't get a chance to prepare until Wednesday afteroon, but it came together quickly). I planned a short lesson (did a shortened version of one of the scripture based lessons for the week) and then we played a game (an LDS version of Taboo). I also provided breakfast--I made cinnamon buns and also brought fruit and chocolate milk. Both Thursday and Friday were optional days and we agreed to do them because at least 4 youth said they would come. On Thursday we had 4 come and this morning there were 5. My team teacher taught this morning and she brought coffee cake, fruit, and hot chocolate (yes, it was chilly enough for hot chocolate). It was nice to teach with a small group...the kids were more willing to share their thoughts. I did miss all the kids who weren't there, though. I will miss the Seniors who won't be there next year and I will miss seeing all of them regularly over the summer. I have come to love all of them. But it will also be nice to get a break!

I haven't really felt the full effects of no Seminary yet (since we had it every day this week) but yesterday I did have some free time and got to talk to Amy on the phone for quite a while and I did some reading, too. 

I had a few late nights this week and Wednesday night I didn't sleep well at all. I didn't get a chance to get a nap yesterday but today I took a 2 hour nap after I got home from Seminary...that was nice!! I wanted to go to the temple today but I knew I would be fighting to stay awake. My left eye has also been red, sore, and slightly swollen the last few days and it hurts a little to wear glasses (and of course I can't wear my contacts, either, with an infected eye) so I decided to stay home and rest my eye and take a nap instead. Tomorrow Frank and I are going to a wedding, so I will get to go to the temple tomorrow. 

I did get quite a bit of quilting done this week also. Yesterday I finished quilting one of the June blocks:

I started on the second one and got quite a bit done (I was working on that while I talked to Amy). I should be able to finish quilting it this next week.

I'll finish up with a few more photos I took this week. Yesterday when I got home from Seminary, there were a couple of mallard ducks playing in some puddles in the parking lot:

 And this morning we had a beautiful sunrise: