It's been another busy week. Last Saturday (the 3rd) I finished preparing my Seminary lesson for Monday. I spent a lot of time quilting and I was able to finish the butterfly quilt block. I also finished watching the last 4 episodes of Madam Secretary (mostly while I was quilting).
That evening, I went to a polynesian dance performance because one of my Seminary students was one of the dancers. The performance was really nice--reminded me a lot of the dances we saw when we were at the Polynesian Cultural Center. There's something about Polynesian dancing that is so heartwarming; I really love it! Frank came with me to the performance which I really appreciated--made it more fun for me to not be there alone. We were surprised when we arrived to discover that there was food too--that took care of dinner for us.
Seth worked a little bit on his English paper that morning and that evening he was working (otherwise, maybe he would have gone to the dance performance with us too.)
Sunday was particularly busy. Besides regular church meetings, I also went to a baptism and to an openhouse. Frank didn't go to anything except for regular church meetings because during Sacrament meeting his right leg started to hurt a lot. He had to go out to the foyer and sit on a couch with his leg up on a chair to get some relief. We don't know why that happened, but he spent the rest of Sunday lying down to rest his leg. It's been gradually getting better since then and he was able to go to work and to his temple shift as usual, thankfully.
We had a particually sweet fast and testimony meeting in our ward. We had a lot of visitors so our numbers were larger than usual and that felt really great. When we started to sing the sacrament hymn, I felt this really powerful, beautiful spirit. I'm not sure exactly why, but it just felt really wonderful to be able to unite with many other believers in Christ to sing praises to Him. There was a powerful feeling of unity and love throughout the whole meeting, which was reflected in the testimonies and in how people were interacting with each other. It was just really sweet and inspiring.
The baptism was for a lady that the Elders in our ward have been teaching for months. She's been coming to church regularly and the Elders have also asked a lot of ward members (including me) to go with them to teaching appointments for her, so a lot of ward members know her (she's awesome!!) and a lot of people were at the baptism. (Her brother, son, and two grandkids attended as well, so that was great!) It was a really beautiful baptism and when she was being confirmed she was crying because she was so happy. Afterwards, she shared her testimony and said things like "I feel like I've had a hole inside me for most of my life and now it is being healed". Really sweet!
I came home from the baptism long enough to eat some dinner and then I went to an openhouse for a boy in our ward and his new wife. They got married a year ago, but their wedding was in Utah so this was just a little openhouse to give us a chance to meet her. There were a lot of people there, too (many who had been at the baptism). This boy was one of my 94 Primary kids back when I was the Primary president. All my kids are so grown up now.
Monday was busy with the usual chores and I also finished preparing my Seminary lesson for Tuesday. Seth worked on his paper a bit before going to work. I sewed the backs onto the May pillow covers that evening so they are on the couch now:
I'm happy with how they turned out.
On Tuesday I was trying to get a lot of extra things done besides the usual chores. I can't even remember what they all were now, I just know I had a long list. One thing I tried to do was to get in touch with my cardiologist to get cardio clearance for a colonoscopy. It's been two weeks since I went to the gastroentrologist and they have not called me back to schedule the procedure which means that they have not heard back from my cardiologist even though they faxed over a cardio clearance request for me. They told me if I hadn't heard back from them in two weeks that I should call my cardiologist directly to try to get the clearance. So I tried...but I wasn't successful. I got through their menu to the line for "cardio clearance" but it rang several times and then a recording stated that the maibox was full and hung up on me. Then I decided to try the appointment line because I thought I would be able to talk to a human. However, I got a recording saying that all their receptionists were busy and that I should leave a message and they would call me back. I left a message, but guess who hasn't called me back? I'm not very impressed with the way they run their office! I don't remember having issues like this in the past with them. I haven't had a chance to try again but I will have to do that soon. I checked back in my records and discovered that the last time I was there (almost exactly 3 years ago) they told me that I should come back in 3 years for a check up, so I'm expecting that I'm going to have to go in for a check up before they will give me cardio clearance. I had no idea this was going to be such a long process!
On Tuesday after school Seth had a doctor appointment--his medicine check and a well child check up too. That evening after I dropped Seth off at his YM activity, I picked up his suit pants that we took to a store to be hemmed. He tried them on last night and they look a lot better now.
Wednesday I tried to prepare Seminary lessons but all I managed to do was read through both of them. I kept getting interrupted and after Seth got home from school I spent the whole evening either helping him or doing things that he normally does (but that he couldn't do because he was working on his English paper). He's been telling me that his paper isn't due until Friday the 16th, but on Wednesday he realized that it's actually due on Tuesday the 13th so he doesn't have as much time as we thought. I spent over an hour looking over his paper with him and trying to help him come up with ideas and to find some better sources. His CTC class is basically done (they aren't doing any new work) so I have been telling him that he should work on his paper during the hours that he's at the CTC, but he hadn't made much progress. He said that since no one has work to do in that class, everyone is talking and it's really distracting and hard to focus. That's when I got the bright idea to have him come home from school on Thursday after his first and second block classes are over so he can work on his paper at home. There doesn't seem to be much point in him going to the CTC when he's not actually doing / learning anything and missing a day or two isn't going to matter since he has hardly any absences this year. Anyway, after a few hours of working on the paper, we took a break and I took him to the church parking lot so he could practice backing into parking spots because that's one of the requirements to pass the driver's test and he was scheduled to take the test today. We spent about an hour doing that and he made a lot of progress and got to the point that he could consistently back in without going over the lines on either side. After we got back from the church, we had dinner and then Seth worked on his paper some more while I mowed the lawn (usually Seth's job). It really needed to be mowed and couldn't wait because of rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.
On Thursday morning I woke up at 1:00 am and didn't go back to sleep, unfortunately. I had a lot to do so I didn't have time for a nap. I did get a lot done--I got all of the regular chores except for laundry done before I picked Seth up from school after his second block. Then I spent quite a bit of time helping Seth with his English paper. (He's got a fairly good start on it now, but he still has a lot to do to finish it.) Frank had an employee appreciation lunch and activities that day at work, so he left work later than usual. Oh, I forgot to mention that earlier this week he had his annual performance review and he got "exceeds expectations" which is always great to hear. Thursday evening I took Seth to the church to practice backing into parking spaces for a while longer, and we drove around a while too. I was really happy to get to bed last night--I was exhausted!
Today it rained most of the day although it finally cleared up a few hours ago and we're even seeing a little bit of sun now.We had a lot of rain this week, actually, including some thunderstorms. The days are mostly warm but today it's rather chilly. It definitely doesn't feel like May today! This morning I went to another polynesian dance performance for the girl in my Seminary class. My team teacher and I went together. I wanted to go again because the sound system wasn't working great at the performance that I went to on Saturday so it was hard to hear the parts where they were introducing the dances. Besides, I really enjoyed the first performance and was happy to see it again. This performance was at an elementary school and it was a lot of fun. We also got to talk to the girl in our Seminary class before the performance, which was great.
Yesterday I didn't have the brain power to work on Seminary lessons (too sleepy) so I still don't have either lesson ready. I wrote most of this post yesterday and also did most of the budgeting because those tasks are easier for me to do when I'm tired. I was hoping that would give me more time to work on lessons today but here it is 6:30 pm and I haven't done anything yet. After Seminary I dropped my car off at the dealership so they could fix my windows (the part finally came in). Then I had time to change and eat breakfast before leaving for the dance performance. After I got back from the performance, I finished the budgeting and added a little to this post before it was time to pick up Seth from school. (He got out 2 hours early today.) We drove over to the church so he could practice backing into parking spots a little bit more before we drove over to the MVA so he could take the driver's test. And he passed! 😄So all that practicing the last few days plus the hours of driving we've been doing the last year + paid off. Now we get to pay nearly twice as much for our auto insurance, but at least we have a 3rd driver in the family and we never have to go through all that again. The driver's test took way too long. His appointment was at 1:30 but we had to wait in line so long that he didn't actually start the test until nearly 2:30 and it was close to 3:30 by the time we finished all the follow up paperwork and made it home. We weren't home long before the car dealership called to say my car was ready so we went to pick it up. Then we started to make dinner and discovered that the shrimp we wanted to use was really freezer burned so we ordered some Chinese food instead and had to go pick that up. We are finally done with dinner so after I finish this post, maybe I will get a little bit of work done on Seminary lessons before going to bed.
I'm happy that I only have a few more lessons to prepare this year. We have two weeks of Seminary left. Our official last day is Wednesday the 21st because that is the last day of school for the seniors that go to Walkersville High School (we have 5 of them in our class). Seth and the other senior who go to his high school actually get out earlier because their graduation day is earlier. Their last day of school will be Monday the 19th. Anyway, we decided to offer to have Seminary on Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd for any of the underclassmen who wanted to come. We told them we would do it if at least 4 of them commited to come. Surprisingly, 5 or 6 of them said they wanted to come so we will meet those two days also but it will be a smaller group and a lot more informal. (We're thinking more of a devotinal with a discussion instead of a full lesson and then a game and some food.) The end is definitely in sight!
We're excited that Tanner is going to be able to come for Seth's graduation. Scott needs to work and Jared can't take time off, either, because he just took time off to go to Jessie's sister's wedding. It will be nice to have Tanner here for a few days, though.
That brings you up to date on us for now.
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