Weekly Review September 26 '25

September has felt quite long to me. This week as I was preparing Seminary lessons for next week, I realized that I have taught 9 Seminary lessons this month and I have 2 more to teach next week. Eleven lessons feels like a lot for one month. Maybe that's why September has felt so long to me. There's been a lot of work to do and a lot of adjusting to new routines. 

Last Saturday Seth worked and the missionaries came over for dinner. As usual, I worked on Seminary lessons, practiced ukulele, and cleaned the kitchen floor (the mop was a little easier to use this time, so maybe it just needed to be broken in a bit). Frank and I went on a walk also, but we haven't been able to go on one since then. 

On Sunday Seth came to church with us because the YSA Ward didn't have their usual meetings. They had some sort of regional meeting that was early in the morning and he would have had to meet at the church to carpool at a very early hour. He decided to come to church with us instead. Since the YSA Ward didn't meet at our church, I knew no one would set up the tables and chairs for Seminary so Seth and I went over to the church later that evening to set them up. I also made some copies and got some other things prepared for the next morning. I talked to Jared Sunday afternoon and they are doing well. Jessie has to do a practicum her last two semesters (starting in January and going through August, when she graduates) so she had an interview for one this past week, and they offered the position to her, so that is great! She starts some training soon and will actually be starting the practicum before January. 

The rest of the week has been mostly the usual stuff for all of us--work and temple shift for Frank, work and school for Seth, Seminary and household chores for me. 

I did have one day off from Seminary because there was no school on Tuesday. I taught on Monday and Wednesday instead. I have not slept very well most nights this week so I took some fairly long naps a few days. I mean, I've definitely had worse nights in the past, but since Seminary started this year I have actually been sleeping quite well until this week so it's the contrast to the first couple of good weeks that makes this week feel a lot worse. I didn't feel super great about either of my lessons this week but I'll just try again next week and hope it goes better. Unfortunately, one incident on Wednesday upset one of the girls in our class and she hasn't been back to Seminary since then. We didn't even realize she was upset until her mom texted me later that night (which I didn't see until the next morning, which was kind of fortunate because I probably wouldn't have slept at all if I had seen it). It was actually a totally innocent decision on my part that came across in the wrong way and I texted both the mom and her daughter to explain and to tell them I was sorry but neither of them have answered me so I'm not super happy about that. I hope at some point they will understand and forgive. I don't feel that I did anything wrong, which helps me to not feel quite so bad, but I do understand where they are coming from and feel very sorry that I unintentionally caused them pain. There are a few other class members that we are worried about--either because they aren't coming or because of their behavior so it's definitely been one of my low weeks as far as Seminary is concerned. But to focus on the positive...most of the kids are great, we've had some really positive interactions with one of the boys who shared an awesome accomplishment with us this week, and I invited Seth's Institute teachers to come to one of my lessons this week (to tell the class about Institute, since that was part of the lesson) and they sent me a really nice email the next day which included praises for what an awesome young man Seth is. 

On Tuesday I went with Frank to his appointment with the surgeon and the big news is that he DOESN'T have to have surgery on his shoulder. We weren't expecting that news, but we are really happy about it. Instead, he has exercises that he needs to do several times a week and the surgeon also gave him a cortisone shot to help with the pain. The shot is helping a little bit in part of his shoulder, but the other part is still really sore. Hopefully as he does the exercises it will start to improve a lot more over the next few weeks. 

I finished the second hat that I was crocheting; just need to add embelishments to both of them. I did some more coloring this week too but I haven't finished either of the pictures I've been working on. Yesterday I gave a friend a ride to the bank so she could get a new debit card since her old one wasn't working. She had to wait a long time for a banker to be available to help her, so that errand took a lot longer than I planned but I'm glad I was able to help her. I was hoping I would get home before it rained because I forgot to bring my raincoat and thankfully it didn't start raining until about 5 minutes after I made it home...and then it poured!! 

Speaking of rain, we had a couple of rainstorms this week and on Tuesday I saw a rainbow. (Actually, it was a double rainbow...if you look closely you may see the second one, which is a lot fainter.):

Overall, this week was quite warm and humid with some fog as well as rain. I had to wipe water off my side windows nearly every morning so I could see to drive but it was also warm enough that I could wear sandals, even to Seminary at 6:00 am. 

This morning I went to the temple which I really needed because I was feeling pretty down about all the Seminary stuff. It really helped and I'm grateful I could go.

Seth worked today and Frank and I seized the opportunity to watch a couple of episodes of a show we've been watching together (Seth tends to monopolize the television when he's at home).

To finish up, here is a link to a YouTube video that Tanner and Scott made. Tanner wrote it and filmed it and Scott did all the editing. I will let it speak for itself:

endings

Weekly Review September 19 '25

This was another busy, but not super eventful week. I don't have anything on the calendar on Saturday and now I don't remember much about what we did. Seth did some weeding and Frank and Seth went together to buy new brake pads and rotors for my car, because they needed to be replaced. Frank is not up to changing the brakes himself right now because of his shoulder, but he was hoping to find someone who could help Seth do it while Frank gave directions. That didn't work out, though, so he got an appointment to have them fixed today with a mechanic that we sometimes use. (They used the brakes and rotors that we purchased.) In the meantime, the brakes sounded pretty bad, so we tried to use my car as little as possible this week. I'm glad the brakes are fixed now.

Anyway, back to Saturday...I'm sure I worked on Power Point slides and such for Seminary lessons. I also finished crocheting the hat I was working on. Frank and I went on a walk and I remember that I mopped the kitchen floor because I got a new mop earlier that week and the new one is much harder to wring out than the one I had before, so it was a real workout! It does wring out a lot more effectively, though, so the floor got clean but it dried a whole lot faster. I'm not looking forward to using that mop again, but hopefully in time I will adjust to using it and it won't be as difficult. Here's the hat that I crocheted (from the top and from the side):

It's supposed to have some embellishments on the front, but I haven't sewed those on yet. I think it looks nice, but it doesn't look all that nice on me--it looks too big. I guess all berets are kind of roomy, but I didn't expect it to turn out as big as it did. (I did check the gauge, and I was doing it correctly.) Now I am working on a second one in a different color: 

My original idea was to make one for me and one to give away, but maybe I will give them both away since they don't fit well. If I were really clever, I would figure out how to make this one smaller, but I have no idea how to do that.  

On Sunday I was asked to help in the nursery and that was kind of fun for a change. I got to talk to Jared that afternoon. (Frank was taking a nap.) Seth forgot to make sure the Seminary tables were set up correctly after church, so after dinner he and I went over to set them up. It turns out that someone had set them up, but they needed some tweaking. 

The rest of the week was mostly the regular routine for all of us, with a few extra things thrown in. Since we were trying not to use my car a lot, I used Frank's car on Wednesday to go to Seminary (he was working from home). I also took Seth to class and picked him up afterwards...he couldn't take Frank's car himself because he can't park on campus without a parking sticker and the sticker is on my car, not Frank's. (They won't give you more than one sticker and it's not the kind you can move from one car to another.) It rained almost all day on Wednesday which was kind of inconvenient, but since it's been really dry the last few monhts, we were glad to get some rain.

On Wednesday I also had book chat in the evening but I nearly forgot all about it. Frank reminded me about 20 minutes before book chat started, and about 5 minutes after he reminded me, I also remembered that I was supposed to be bringing the snacks! So I had to stop at the store on the way over to get something and I still managed to get there right on time! I was so glad that Frank remembered and even more glad that I remembered I was supposed to bring snacks before I actually got there empty-handed. Seth went with me because he had Institute that night at the same time and the book chat's hostess's house is in the same neighborhood as the church. He dropped me off at book chat and then came back to get me after his Institute class was over. 

I forgot to mention that Seth had a doctor appointment on Tuesday afternoon...just a check for his medicine. Now that he is 18, he can take himself to his doctor appointments--nice!! 

On Thursday evening I went to a soccer game at one of the high schools because four of the girls in my Seminary class are on the team. They all got to play (some of them the entire game) and they all played well. Their team won, 4-0. I enjoyed watching them play and I was able to sit with other people from our ward, so that was fun. 

Frank got his MRI results on Monday. He has a SLAP tear in the left shoulder capsule, which is a tear in the cartilage. It needs to be surgically repaired. He finally got the names of some recommended surgeons from our doctor yesterday and was able to make an appointment with one of them for next Tuesday. I have no idea how long it will take to get the surgery scheduled, but I hope it is soon. In the meantime, he is in pain all the time (although it isn't getting worse). He did do his shift at the temple on Tuesday. He has been talking with his shift coordinator and they assign him things to do that don't require him to use his left arm much. 

Today I didn't go to the temple because my car was at the mechanic until mid afternoon and Seth had to be at work at 10:00, so there was not a car available for me to take to the temple. We dropped my car off at the mechanic right after Seminary. After changing and eating breakfast and taking Seth to work, I took a nap and I slept for about an hour and 40 minutes. That's the only nap I've had all week, so I was really tired. I actually would have slept longer but the phone rang and woke me up--it was the mechanic letting us know my car was done. After eating lunch, we went to pick up my car and then dropped it off at Seth's work so that he could drive himself home. Then I finally started working on updating the budget and got it done shortly before Seth got home from work. 

Tonight we went to the county fair for a few hours. Frank's former client gave us admission tickets and ride passes. We got some dinner and some ice cream and I got to look at all the quilts and other craft items on display and Seth got to look at all the tractors. It was really crowded and Frank's shoulder hurts more when he walks around a lot, so that's all we did. We didn't want the ride passes to go to waste so we found someone to give them to before we left--they were really happy to get them!

Seminary is still going well. I planned one of next week's lessons on Wednesday and the other one yesterday. As usual, I still need to prepare Power Point slides and a few other things, but they are mostly ready. 

I did some coloring this week and finished this picture that I started coloring a long time ago:

Today in the mail I got a summons for jury duty for the week of October 27th. Hopefully that will not interfere with Frank getting surgery on his shoulder. We'll just have to see how it all works out. 

That is the update for this week.

Weekly Review September 12 '25

This week was busy, but mostly with the usual things so I don't think there is a ton to write about. Last Saturday I had a quiet morning while Frank was gone doing work for a client and Seth was helping set up the tech stuff for Stake Conference. I used that quiet time to do Seminary lesson prep and I did manage to get everything ready for Monday's lesson and planned lessons for Tuesday and Wednesday. On Sunday afternoon I got everything else ready (Power Point slides etc.) for the other two lessons, so I was ready to go for this week, which was great. I had to plan shorter lessons (about 30 minutes instead of 40 - 45 minutes) because we had the kids take turns telling a little bit about themselves so we had to leave time for that. On Monday Tammy and I each told a little about ourselves to give them examples of what to do. Tammy had a slide with a bunch of pictures that represented different things about herself and I brought in several objects. Every other day this week we had 3 or 4 of the youth talk about themselves. Most of them just got up and told a few things about themselves, though. Two of them prepared slides with pictures and no one has brought in any objects. We have still managed to learn a few things about them, though. 

I guess I got a little side tracked from what happened on Saturday. As I mentioned, it was Stake Conference for us this weekend. Frank and Seth were both helping with the tech for both the Saturday evening session and the Sunday morning session...Seth at the stake center and Frank at our ward building. On Saturday evening they were doing a test broadcast from the stake center to our building so Frank was at our building. The last couple of conferences before this one, I went with Frank to our building to watch the Saturday evening session but since last time they actually had a lot of problems with the broadcast and I missed the whole meeting, I opted to go to the stake center by myself this time. Actually, I didn't go by myself...Seth came with me...but I was sitting by myself since Seth was running around helping with tech stuff for the whole meeting. For the Sunday morning session I also went to the stake center because I was singing in the choir. I had choir practice before the meeting started but Seth also had to be there early to help with the tech stuff, so that worked out perfectly. Both meetings were very good.

On Sunday afternoon Tammy and I met at the church to make sure the tables for Seminary Monday morning were set up correctly. The YSA ward sets them up for us since they are the last ward to have meetings in our building every Sunday. Last week, Seth made sure they were set up correctly but he didn't go to the YSA ward meetings this week since he went to our stake conference meetings instead. It's a good thing we checked, because when we got there none of the tables or chairs were set up. 

I feel like all of my lessons went pretty well this week and I am really happy with our class. So far, almost everyone has been awake and participating every day and there is usually a comfortable and happy / fun atmosphere. Every day, there are some great comments and we have even had some of the youth actually raise their hands and offer comments without being asked! *This is earth shattering!!* It's mostly the freshmen who are doing this--go freshmen!! Show the older kids how it should be done! 😊Really, they are all so sweet! The new kids from Frederick High School are also participating and I feel like a lot of the kids we've had for a couple of years are participating a lot more too. And they just seem happier and more comfortable with us. So yes--good things happening in Seminary! I got Monday's lesson planned on Wednesday and Tuesday's lesson planned yesterday. I still need to prepare some Power Point slides and some handouts and make some copies. And I'm not super happy with Monday's lesson, so I may do some tweaking. But it feels good to have most of the heavy duty part of the preparations done for next week. 

Frank got his MRI on Wednesday morning but unfortunately we don't have the results of that yet. I was really hoping they would call him today. Now we'll have to wait until at least Monday before we know what is going on with his shoulder. In the meantime, it is still hurting a lot...I feel like even more than before. He asked for his temple shift off this week, just so he could give his shoulder more of a rest.

Seth's week was a lot like last week...he went to classes, didn't have a lot of homework, and today was the only day he was scheduled to work. He did have a longer shift this week than last week, though. 

Today I went to the temple and did an endowment session. When I arrived, there were two sisters from my stake getting out of the car next to me...they were both in my ward at one time before boundary changes, so I know them pretty well. Another sister who is currently in my ward was also in the same session with us. It's always nice to see friends at the temple!

I stopped on the way home to get some chicken from Costco and then spent the rest of the afternoon working on the budget. Tonight Frank and I went on a date--we went for a drive and then stopped at this cute little restaurant to get some pie and ice cream. I had been there once with friends and discovered that they had a lot of pie choices and I knew Frank would like that so I decided I should take him there to get pie sometime. Frank got blueberry pie and I got peach pie, and of course we shared with each other so we both got to try both kinds. It was yummy, and fun to spent some time together. The drive was beautiful too.

We have continued to have nice weather (although we're probably not getting enough rain) and Frank and I have gone on walks several days this week. I try to take at least a short nap most week days, although I didn't get a nap today or yesterday. I feel like I am a lot more productive after I've had a nap! I talked to both Scott and Tanner this week and they are both doing well. Scott will be starting his new job soon and Tanner is back in school, although he is only taking one class currently.

Like everyone else, we were pretty shocked to hear about Charlie Kirk's assassination on Wednesday. I really didn't know much about him, but it has felt pretty personal to me for two reasons...first, because he was the same age as Scott and second, because it happened in Orem. It feels so strange to me that this relatively unknown city where I lived for 18 years is now being heard about all over the world. And what a tragic thing to be known for! It's also really disturbing to me that someone would be shot just for being vocal about their opinions / political views. And even more disturbing that some people who don't agree with his political views have actually expressed happiness that he was killed. I don't understand why some people can't see that an attack on anyone's freedom of speech is an attack on everyone's freedom of speech. I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. Just a terrible thing to have happened.

Oh, one other thing I did this week--I started crocheting a hat. It's been a while since I've done any crocheting, so I've had to re-learn a lot of stuff, but I've made some progress and I'm about half way through with it now. It's been fun for me to be working on a project again! I'm also going to start on a small (very small) quilting / sewing project soon. I'm currently gathering all the supplies that I will need. 

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

Weekly Review September 5 '25

I survived my first week of Seminary for this school year. Only about 37 more to go....

Last Saturday (the 30th) I had a haircut appointment in the morning. I went straight from there to a RS activity at the church. We made these things called "vision banners". Here is my completed banner:

We cut out pictures and words from Church magazines to make the banners. I chose the theme of "healing" for my banner. I have it hanging on the wall above my sewing machine so I can feel inspired while I am working down there. (I need to start another project though!)

On Saturday I also made some granola (Frank helped me) and practiced ukulele and worked on Seminary stuff, including going to the church to make a whole bunch of copies. By the time I got done with all of that, I had a headache so I didn't clean the kitchen floor as I usually do on Saturday evening. 

Sunday was fast Sunday for us because we have Stake Conference this weekend. Frank and I went to church without Seth (he went to the YSA ward later that day) and we were realizing it was the first time we'd gone to church together without at least one kid in tow since Scott was born (31 years ago)! Well, maybe there's been a week or two in the last few years that Seth has been sick and stayed home alone but you get the idea.

For our 5th Sunday lesson the second hour, we sang a bunch of the new hymns to become familiar with them (I'm already familiar with all of them, because I've listened to them a lot, but a lot of people don't know them at all yet). Frank was helping with the technology for that (music on two television screens and running the interactive music player) so I had to take care of the sacrament meeting broadcast for the ward that meets after us because Frank couldn't do that at the same time. (He handles the sacrament meeting broadcast every Sunday for all three of the wards that meet in our building.) The main thing I had to do was move the camera angle depending on what was happening...someone speaking or everyone singing...and to turn off the sound and camera during the sacrament and then turn it back on when the sacrament ended. I couldn't hear what was happening...I could only see...so I had to pay attention to what people were doing to know what was happening and when I needed to move the camera angle. I was doing fine through the beginning and the opening hymn and prayer; then the bishopric member got up again and I thought he was doing ward business and announcing the sacrament hymn so after he sat down again I moved the camera angle to show the conductor and organist but the conductor didn't stand up and the organist moved off of the organ bench instead of starting to play. What??? I couldn't figure out what was happening. Then I saw men walking in front of the podium and I thought that maybe somehow I was mixed up and they were passing the sacrament. I turned off the camera and the sound but then nothing happened for a long time. (I could still see what was happening, anyone watching the broadcast from home couldn't.) I kept changing the camera angle back and forth between the sacrament table and the podium, trying to figure out what was happening. Then I saw more men walk by and the bishopric member stood back up so I turned the camera and sound back on and then he sat back down and the conductor stood up so I knew they were singing and then they did do the sacrament. I didn't figure out until later (after talking to Frank after our class was over) that there had been a baby blessing! Then it all made sense. Oops! I'm glad that Frank usually handles this job so that I don't have to.

After church Tammy and I had one more Seminary visit. This boy and his family actually used to be in our ward years ago before they bought a new house which was in a different ward's boundaries. He was very young then, though, so of course we wanted the chance to get to know him better. He also attended the same charter school as my boys and he and Seth were in the same class for at least one year (he's two years younger than Seth) and he actually remembers coming to our house once to make navajo tacos for a project he and Seth were working on together at school. I was surprised when he said he remembered doing that! 

Monday was Labor Day of course, so Frank didn't have work and Seth didn't have his college class. Our ward had a picnic with yummy food and lots of games and visiting. After the picnic, Tammy and I met at the church to figure out the best way to set up the tables for our Seminary class and we also did a little bit of cleaning / rearranging of closets and some planning.

Tuesday was the first day of Seminary, and it went well. I brought donuts for everyone and Tammy had planned some activities to help the kids get to know each other. I taught on Wednesday and Thursday and Tammy taught today. Originally, I was going to teach on Wednesday and today and Tammy was going to teach on Thursday, but as I looked at my lessons closer over the weekend, I realized we needed to change some things around. That meant I had to re-plan my lessons a bit so I ended up spending quite a bit of time on Tuesday re-working Wednesday's lesson and quite a bit of time on Wednesday re-working Thursday's lesson. Every week will not be like this, thankfully!! Overall, the week went well and I think all the new kids (both freshmen and the new ones from Frederick High School) are great! I think we are going to have a good year. I didn't feel really great on Wednesday after my first lesson, though. I felt like I stumbled through the whole thing and that it didn't go very well. Thursday felt better to me, though, and I'm feeling more optimistic now. 

It was hard to know how many kids to plan for because there were several that hadn't given us a definite answer on whether or not they were coming. We have 34 kids on our roll, but 7 of those either told us they weren't planning to attend Seminary this year or we were pretty sure they wouldn't come, based on their history from last year. Then there were 2 from Frederick Ward that we hadn't been able to contact at all and 2 more who did come regularly the last two years, but who told us they were still trying to figure out if this year was going to work out (these two always slept through the whole class even when they did come). It turns out that we had about 20 kids come each day this week. All 11 of the kids we weren't sure about didn't come, which takes us down to 23 kids. Then there were 2 or 3 kids missing each day. One girl didn't come at all but she's been having some mental health issues so she's going to do home study for a little while and hopefully start coming in a few weeks. We are providing her with work to do each day from home until she starts coming. Anyway, I think it's going to shake down to 23 on our roll, with a few missing each day. That's not actually all that different from what we've had the last two years. Of course I wish that those other 11 kids would come, but it does make the class size more managable. It still feels pretty crowded in our classroom and I really don't know if we'd be able to fit 34--at least, not with tables. 

Since I spent so much of this week re-working lessons and there were a lot of other extra administrative and communication pieces to do, I have not had much time to look ahead to next week's lessons. I'm actually teaching three next week. I did manage to get Monday's lesson planned yesterday and I've read  through Tuesday's lesson, but that's it. I will be doing a lot of lesson planning tomorrow. After that, I hope I will be more "caught up" and my life can get into my regular Seminary routine. 

I have slept pretty well every night this week, thankfully. A bit restless at times and yesterday I woke up an hour before the alarm went off and didn't go back to sleep but other than that I haven't had any long hours of wakefulness in the middle of the night or anything like that. Even so, I have felt very tired every day and I have taken a nap every day. 

Enough about me! Seth has had a little bit of homework this week, but his classes don't appear to be all that taxing. He worked today, but that's the only day this week he was scheduled to work. He has a lot of free time so I have been asking him to do extra things to help around the house and he has helped me with some Seminary things too. He has been really cheerful and willing to help when I ask and he also volunteered to do a few things to help which I appreciate!

Frank's shoulder is still hurting a lot and it is hard to see him suffer. I'm glad that he will be getting the MRI on Wednesday. I suppose it will take a few days to get the results but hopefully by the time I write next week we will have a better idea why his shoulder is hurting so much (and hopefully it's something treatable and he'll be able to get some relief). The doctor did call this week to say he could call in some pain medication for him, but Frank didn't want to do that because most pain medication really knocks him out. 

Frank found out on Wednesday that he didn't get the position he interviewed for and he feels kind of frustrated about that. It's hard to know for sure, of course, but it seems like there is a lot of politics going on where he works and that people get hired for positions based more on how long they've worked there and who they know than on how qualified they are. But the job he has is definitely good, so we really can't complain. 

Today I went to the temple as usual. I felt really sleepy when I was driving down, so I was glad that I was doing initiatories instead of an endowment session. (I didn't have time to take a nap in between Seminary and leaving for the temple; I took a nap after I got home.) 

The picture I would like to have, but couldn't take (of course): inside the temple, the sun was shining through the stained glass windows and they were glowing like jewels and colored light was fanned across the carpet on the stairs. It was so beautiful!! I will just have to remember that in my mind's eye. 

Tonight we picked Seth up from work and went out to eat at Olive Garden. I'm always happy to have a night off from cooking. 

We've continued to have beautiful weather most of the week. We had some rain yesterday and today it is kind of hot but most days have been warm and sunny, with crisp mornings. Frank and I have taken a few walks and I try to go outside for some fresh air periodically throughout the day. I'll finish this week's post with a few photos I've taken from the deck.