Weekly Review October 31 '25

Happy Halloween! Let's see if my tired brain can remember what happened this past week.

Last Saturday Frank was gone all morning and into the early afternoon handling the IT stuff for a big church leadership meeting at our stake center. He was actually there to handle any problems that came up (he had everything set up the night before) so he didn't have a lot to do--just handled a few very minor issues. Meanwhile, I worked on Seminary lesson preparations. I finished everything for Monday's lesson and read through my second lesson again and worked out an outline, but didn't do the rest of that lesson that day. I practiced the song we sang in choir the next day and also practiced ukulele for a while. After Frank got home, we listened to the first half of the BYU / Iowa State game. If you listened to / watched that game, you know that the first half didn't go very well so we definitely felt frustrated by that but we were glad that the team started playing better at the end of the first half. We couldn't listen to the second half because it was time for us to go to our ward Trunk or Treat. We actually had a combined Trunk or Treat with one of the other wards that meets in our building. There was a chili cook off / dinner first (there was cornbread, hot dogs, and desserts besides chili) and also some games for the kids before the actual trick or treating. I made some chili and Frank made some macaroni & cheese which was very popular with the kids and disappeared pretty quickly. We continued to check our phones throughout the evening to check on the football game and were delighted to see BYU pull ahead and win the game. It was fun watching the highlight reels later.

Sunday started early because I had choir practice before church. We sang Hans's arrangement of Look Unto Christ that day and it went well. The choir director asked me to introduce it, which I was happy to do. After church I talked with Jared and did a little more Seminary lesson prep. There were two baptisms that afternoon for people who have been attending our ward although one of them is going to attend the YSA branch and the other one lives in another ward's boundaries (she is friends with a member of our ward, so started attending with her friend originally), so neither of them will actually be members of our ward but it's great that they both chose to be baptized. I wanted to go to the baptisms to support them but I was just wiped out and felt like I needed some down time. Seth did go to the baptism for the YSA guy and then came home long enough to eat before leaving again for mission prep class so he had a pretty busy day.

On Monday evening Seth and I went to a special devotional at the Washington DC Temple Visitor's Center. A really beautiful stained glass mural called Believe In Him has been on display there since January (we've seen it a few times). It was created by Tom & Gayle Holdman and their team and on Monday evening the Holdmans presented a devotional where they shared their testimonies and talked a bit about why and how they created the mural. Seth has been really interested in this art piece, so when I heard about the devotional I asked him if he wanted to go and he did. Frank was interested too, but since Tuesday is his really long day (temple shift after work) he felt like he needed to stay home and get to bed. I definitely would not have considered going either except that there was no Seminary Tuesday morning so I didn't have to get up really early. That worked out really nicely for me! I'm really glad we went to the devotional because it was amazing and super inspiring. I thought it would be held in the auditorium at the visitor's center, but it was actually in the same room where the mural was displayed, which is a much smaller room. There were probably less than 200 people there, so it felt really intimate and we were able to talk with both Tom Holdman and his wife afterwards. Really great opportunity! Their testimonies are so beautiful and it was especially inspiring to hear what Tom Holdman has been able to accomplish in spite of a very challenging speech impediment. He still struggles with it, but in spite of that he goes all over the place speaking at devotionals! Some of the things they talked about fit really well with the lesson I was teaching on Wednesday morning ("Growth Mindset") and I was able to incorporate that into my lesson, which was awesome. 

The temple on Monday evening: 

They are working on putting up the Christmas lights too:

I am grateful that I didn't have to get up early on Tuesday morning because I didn't get to bed until 9:30 and then I woke up for a couple of hours in the night. I fell back asleep around the time I would have had to get up, normally, so it was a blessing that I was able to get a few more hours of sleep. I still have not slept very well most of this week and Tuesday night was particularly bad (I woke up at 12:30 and never went back to sleep) so I'm grateful for any "extra" hours of sleep that I can get.

I had a busy day Tuesday getting the regular house work done as well as finishing up my lesson for Wednesday morning. I was scheduled for Jury Duty this week but did not have to report on either Monday or Tuesday. When I called on Tuesday evening, though, I found out that I would have to report on Wednesday. I was not particularly happy about having such a bad night when I had to both teach a lesson and then report for Jury Duty (without any chance for a nap), but it all worked out. My lesson went remarkably well considering I couldn't even think straight. Jury Duty ended up only being about 3 hours because the defendant accepted a plea bargain. When we arrived, they showed us a video that went over the whole process while the computer randomly generated a number for each of us. I was number 22. After handing out all the numbers, they told us they had just been told there would be an hour delay. After waiting an hour, the judge came down and told us that a plea bargain had been reached so we wouldn't be needed, but thanked all of us for coming. I think it would actually be interesting to see the jury selection process and / or be on a jury, but I was pretty happy that I didn't have to stay and do that this time. I came home and took a nap instead! And while I was waiting, I was able to finish reading the book for book club, so that was nice. 

It rained throughout the night on Wednesday night and rained most of Thursday morning too. It was quite heavy at times. The rain cleared up in late morning, though, and it has mostly been sunny and beautiful (although a bit windy) since then. At one point yesterday afternoon, one half of the sky was completely sunny and the other half was covered in dark clouds, so I went outside and took some pictures...first facing one way and then facing the other. Both directions looked beautiful! 

I planned both of my lessons for next week on Thursday evening, but still have to finish all the preparations (Power Point slides, etc.) 

We provided breakfast for Seminary this morning--donuts and juice and chocolate milk--and I guess everyone was hungry because there was nothing left by the end of class. I didn't go to the temple today. I didn't make an appointment earlier because I didn't know if I would have to report for Jury Duty or not. Once I knew that I wouldn't need to do that, I thought about making an appointment and Tammy invited me to go with her which would have been nice but ultimately I decided not to go. Although I slept better last night than I have in a while, I have a backlog of many bad nights over the last month and I feel really tired and thought I would probably struggle to stay awake.

This morning when I left for Seminary it was still dark (of course) and it was a little windy so leaves were blowing around. Several of our neighbors have Halloween decorations that light up at night, so it really looked like the perfect spooky Halloween morning, with blowing leaves and spooky decorations! 

Seth didn't have to go to one of his classes yesterday. It's a film study class and his teacher decided to make it an optional attendance day and to show a Halloween movie. She chose The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and since Seth has no desire to see that movie, he didn't go. He is working pretty long shifts both today and tomorrow. 

Extra things that happened this week: Frank purchased and installed a new Ring camera yesterday. Our old one was pretty beat up and not working really well anymore. Today a guy came and aerated our lawn and did some cover seeding. Our lawn has a lot of bare patches and generally isn't looking really great so hopefully that will help. We signed up for next year's health benefits through Frank's work. That always feels like a bit of a chore, but I'm very grateful we have benefits, of course! Both Scott and Tanner are going to be able to come here for Christmas this year. We were able to purchase their plane tickets yesterday. Jared & Jessie are also coming as they usually do, so we will have everyone together for the first time in years--we're very excited about that!!

Frank and I were able to go on a couple of walks this past week. All the trees are really beautiful right now and last night there were some beautiful clouds too. I will finish up with a few photos I took last night and this morning. I keep taking photos of the same trees out back because they always look amazing! I keep hoping the next photo will really capture their beauty but they always look a lot better in real life than in the photos.

Weekly Review October 24 '25

This was another normally busy week--not a lot of extra things going on. 

Last Friday Frank and I went out to dinner. We went to a Mexican place...they have the best shrimp tacos! On Saturday I woke up fairly early (but not as early as I have to get up on week days) so I got up and worked on Seminary lesson stuff and got most of it done. That afternoon Frank and I went to a lesson with the missionaries. Well, we didn't actually go anywhere. Right before we left the house, the missionaries called and said the friend we were meeting with was sick, but she had agreed to meet via Zoom instead. So we stayed home and did the lesson over Zoom. It was very nice. This friend is a woman probably around my age or maybe a bit younger and we already knew her a little bit because she has come to church a number of times. She actually met with the missionaries a year or two ago and came to church a bunch of times back then, so we've known her since then. She had to move, but recently moved back to this area and started meeting with the missionaries and coming to church again. She has set a baptism date for the middle of November, and she is just a really humble sweet lady! We were really happy for the opportunity to be part of this lesson.

After the meeting with the missionaries, Frank came with me to the church so I could make some copies and do a couple of other things I needed to do for Seminary lessons. Then we got milkshakes on our way home. We listened to the first half of the BYU / Utah game that night but neither of us could stay awake for the second half. I woke up around 12:40 am, checked my phone for the final score and was happy to learn that BYU won the game. Then I went back to sleep. Sounds like it was another really exciting game, but once again...I was happy to read about it and to see the highlight reels. 

Sunday was really busy--I feel like every Sunday is! I had choir practice before church. I had time to come home to eat some lunch after church and then went back to meet with Tammy so we could finish our planning for this semester. After Seth got home from his church meetings, we all went to a missionary openhouse for a friend of Seth's (we all know him and his family). His friend is going to serve in the San Francisco / Oakland California Mission. His older brother is also Seth's friend and he is currently serving a mission in another place in California (I can't remember now which mission it is...maybe Anaheim?) After we got back from the open house, Frank went to a stake priesthood meeting. I went to bed before he got home.

This week was still not a very good sleeping week for me, unfortunately. It wasn't as bad as last week, but I still woke up at least a little early most days and at least one night I had trouble falling asleep. The end result is that I haven't had more than 6 hours of sleep any night for the last three weeks, and several nights it was less than 6 hours. Not very fun!

The rest of the week has not been super eventful. Seth went to the YSA FHE on Monday but he didn't have Institute on Wednesday. There was a regional Institute event on Thursday evening instead, but he didn't want to go to that. It was down in DC somewhere. As usual, he worked a long shift today and he has a shorter shift tomorrow. He felt sick when he woke up this morning, but he dragged himself to work and he started feeling better once he got there and seems to be fine now.

On Monday I was able to get a copy of the book we're reading for book chat this month. (Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon). I have been reading it in snatches whenever I get the chance and I really like it.  I'm close to half way through the book already...it's a pretty easy read. 

Yesterday I went to a cross country meet to watch two of the boys in our Seminary class. Seth dropped me off and I got a ride home with Tammy. Besides the boy who is currently in our class, we also saw three other boys who used to be in our class (they don't come anymore) and a number of other youth / parents who are in our stake. It was kind of windy and cold, but I dressed in layers so I was comfortable. Overall, I enjoyed the fresh air and visiting with Tammy while we waited for our boys to run by. Tammy got a selfie of us with one of the boys while he was running by:

After taking the photo, we turned around and cheered for him! 😂

Frank did his temple shift on Tuesday evening and I went to the temple today. 

My Seminary lessons did not go as well as I would have liked this week and I was feeling kind of down but I'm feeling better now. I worked on next week's lessons on Wednesday and really struggled with the first one (which didn't help my mood). I have it mostly planned now, but I still have a lot of details to work out. All I've done to prepare the second one is read it a couple of times, so I will have a lot of lesson prep to do tomorrow but that's how it goes sometimes. I would have been able to get some work done on them yesterday if I hadn't gone to the cross country meet, but I felt like it was more important to support the boys in my class. There isn't school on Tuesday so I actually won't be teaching my second lesson until Wednesday, which means I have a little more time to work on that one if I need it. 

Last night Frank and Seth went to see the movie Tron: Ares. They invited me to go too, but I had to finish the laundry and wanted to read scriptures and get to bed on time, so I declined. They said the movie was pretty good. Tonight they are at the stake center setting up a bunch of IT stuff for a meeting tomorrow.  

It is getting cooler here and the leaves are really starting to turn colors and look beautiful. We had a frost advisory this morning but it didn't get quite as cold as was predicted. I'll finish up with some nature photos:

Peaceful back yard scene near sunset

Another sunset / fall leaf scene from the deck, looking another direction.

My favorite tree in the neighborhood. It is always so beautiful!! I love that I can see it from our front windows.

Sunrise scene, with a bonus hot air balloon.

Squirrel in a tree, taken from an upstairs front window.

Faint partial rainbow from the church parking lot after Seminary one morning.

And sunrise from the Wal-Mart parking lot a few minutes after the rainbow photo was taken.

And a few bonus photos from last week's temple trip that weren't shared with me until after I posted last week:

Me and Tammy

All of us, except for Michelle (who was taking the photo)

Again, everyone except Michelle

Michelle selfie with all of us

For the last two, she told us to be silly:

Weekly Review October 17 '25

 I think this will be another short post. We did mostly the regular things this week--not a lot of extra things going on. 

Last Friday evening there was a RS activity, but I somehow forgot all about it until 30 minutes before it was supposed to start (I had been remembering earlier that day). By the time I remembered, it was too late to go because I hadn't made dinner yet and I had already planned to spend the evening going on a walk with Frank and watching some of our show that we've been watching together. I was kind of sad to miss the activity, but I really wanted to spend that time with Frank so I don't regret it.

On Saturday I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah and then watched Aunt Amy's funeral. I thought the funeral was beautiful and will always be grateful to have known such an amazing woman. I started listening to the BYU / Arizona game that evening but I was getting pretty tired and when the weather delay happened, I gave up and went to sleep. I was really glad I made that choice when I found out next morning that the game was delayed for over an hour and then went into 2 overtimes! I mean, I'm sure it was an exciting nail-biter kind of game, but I was very glad I didn't stay up super late and I was perfectly content to read about the game and to watch the highlights. Glad that BYU won the game in the end.  

Sunday was busy as usual with Church meetings; I also had choir practice that morning. My ward choir just started learning one of the new hymns (Look Unto Christ) with an arrangement that what written by Hans. I love this hymn, so I am really excited to sing it and it's extra special to sing an arrangement done by my brother. One funny moment in practice...one verse has the words "fear not" repeated a number of times. The men were working on their parts for that verse, and when the director asked if they were getting it, one of the men said "I fear not". 😂 I finished up Seminary lesson prep that day and tried to take a nap but couldn't sleep for some reason. 

That's actually been the theme of this week, unfortunately...not enough sleep. I've been really good about going to bed on time, but I keep waking up hours before I need to. I even did that on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. If you remember correctly, I was having the same problem for a lot of last week too so it's been a rough couple of weeks where sleep is concerned. I did take an hour and a half nap on Monday morning, but every other day I have been too busy or haven't been able to sleep when I try to lie down. I did a little better yesterday morning and last night (alarm woke me up this morning) so hopefully I'm working my way out of this bad sleep cycle for a while.

We were happy on Tuesday to watch the Church press conference and learn about the new First Presidency. They are great men and we (and the world) are in good hands!

Wednesday I met with my friend who is homeless to help her fill out an application for a place that just became available. I also took her to the store to get a few things she needed (she just needed a ride there and back). Between that and communicating with her daughter to get a few more pieces of information for the application, it took up a lot of my day, but I did get the application turned in that afternoon. The other thing that took a lot of my time was that both Tanner and Scott called. I'm always happy to talk to them, of course! The end result was that I didn't get any Seminary lesson prep done that day, though. Yesterday was busy too so I didn't get a lot done but I do have a basic outline for Monday's lesson complete. I will be doing a lot of lesson prep this weekend, which I try to avoid, but I know people are more important than my "to do" list and I know the lessons will get done somehow. Oh, I also had book chat on Wednesday evening, which is another reason I didn't get any Seminary lesson prep done. I always enjoy book chat, too! We had kind of a small group this time, but it was still enjoyable. I finished reading the book (Brideshead Revisited) on Monday--didn't like it a whole lot, because I didn't really like any of the characters. It was interesting to talk about it and find out that none of the other women in my book group liked the book / characters either! Now we are going to read a book called Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon.

There's no school today so no Seminary this morning. Instead, Tammy (my Seminary team teacher) and I went with a group of youth from our ward / Seminary class to the temple to do baptisms. Our friend Michelle (who has two kids in our class) came too and so did the Elders serving in our ward. That's because one of the youth from our Seminary class is a new member (baptized in August) and this was his first trip to the temple. It was really sweet to go with this group of youth! Tammy and I were asked to be witnesses for a lot of the baptisms, which I enjoyed. Two of the boys in our class (including the new member) are priests so they were able to baptize some of the other youth and they both did a beautiful job, even though it was the first time either of them had done that. Really glad I got to be there for that! 

I rode to the temple in the same car with Tammy, so on the way down and back we did Seminary planning and got most of the rest of this semester planned out. We're going to meet on Sunday to finish that up.

Frank has not yet been able to connect with the physical therapist to set up his first appointment, but hopefully he will do that soon. He was having trouble earlier this week with one of his feet itching a lot, but that seems to have subsided now. He didn't go to the temple on Tuesday evening because he felt like his shoulder needed a break. He had Monday off work (Columbus Day). He had a class on Wednesday for work, so he had to go in that day so he worked from home yesterday instead. This morning one of his clients had an IT issue, so he had to drive down to Waldorf, Maryland to take care of that. He left really early, so he was back to Frederick in time to start working. 

I got up early this morning so I was able to exercise and update the budget before I left for the temple. I should have some time to get some work done on Seminary lessons now. Well, maybe a nap first!😊

Here's a few more photos from this week, to finish up:

A picture I finished coloring on Saturday (above)

On Monday we played Bananagrams for family night activity. We were down to the end (Frank had been eliminated) and Seth only had one letter left to place but I had a whole bunch, including a Q, a J, and two Zs. I noticed I had the letters to spell "I Quit", so I did that and took a photo...we were all laughing about it!:

After Seth won the game, Frank helped me a bit and we actually managed to place all of my remaining letters except for the J:

And finally, one of the girls in my Seminary class brought me some home made cookies yesterday as a "thank you" for filling out her Seminary teacher recommendation for her BYU application. I thought that was sweet of her! I only had one left when I thought to take a photo:

Weekly Review October 10 '25

 I don't think there is a lot to talk about this week, so this post will probably be short. It was a good week with all the normal things (Seminary, work for Seth and Frank, classes for Seth, Institute for Seth, temple for Frank on Tuesday and for me today, a few walks...) plus General Conference last weekend. 

As always, we really enjoyed General Conference! We had the missionaries over for the first session on Saturday and fed them lunch. We had white chicken chili in the crock pot and I made cornbread and a green salad. We also had a lot of snacks. The missionaries thought it was great!! Unfortunately, Seth had to work from noon to 5:00, so he missed the first session and half of the second one, but he was able to watch the other three sessions. 

I felt a lot of love for the members of the Quorum of the Twelve...I know they have a lot on their shoulders right now and I have been praying for them! I really felt the absence of President Nelson. I will miss him so much!! But, the meetings were wonderful and I'm looking forward to deep diving into all the talks for the next 6 months. 

On Sunday morning (before Conference started) Seth went to the church with me to help me set up tables and chairs for Seminary the next day. The last ward to meet in our building usually sets them up for us, but I knew no one would think of it since there weren't any meetings at the church that day. 

I did some coloring while listening to General Conference and I finished this color-by-number that I've been working on:

I worked on another picture too (not a color-by-number) but I haven't finished it yet. 

Seminary went better this week (or maybe I'm just getting used to it!) I did one thing in one of my lessons that I was pretty sure would flop--and I was right--but I just shrugged my shoulders over it. I did the best I could with it. I wanted to give the youth a chance to rise to the occasion even though I knew most of them wouldn't. But if I don't keep trying, they never will grow, right? So I came away from that lesson feeling at peace about it. (And it helped that my team teacher totally agreed with me.) Besides, there are always good moments. We really are getting more participation from the class overall. When I started teaching 2 years ago, if I had classes like we have now, I would have been over the moon. I've definitely raised my expectations. We had our first guest teacher on Wednesday, and she did a great job. 

On Monday I went to a band exhibition at Seth's former high school because four of the youth in my Seminary class are in the band at that high school. It was fun to see them perform in their band's show. I was up a lot later than usual that night, though. It actually was not a great week for me when it came to sleeping. I went to bed on time most nights but I have been waking up way too early a lot of mornings. And one night I couldn't go to sleep until about an hour and a half after I went to bed, which was super frustrating. I've been able to take a few naps here and there which has helped. 

I was able to watch the funeral service for President Nelson on Tuesday afternoon. I thought it was so sweet. Loved hearing from a couple of his kids and I really enjoyed Pres. Oaks's comments about what it was like to serve in the 1st Presidency with President Nelson. I cried during the closing song when they were showing videos of President Nelson greeting and talking with people. But it was a good kind of gratitude cry for all the wonderful things he did for all of us and for the Church.

Frank had a follow up appointment with our Primary care doctor on Wednesday for his shoulder (and he also had blood work done for his A1C). Our doctor was surprised that the surgeon didn't think he needs surgery. He also feels like Frank's shoulder should have improved more than it has after getting the cortisone shot and that he should have more range of motion than he currently has, so he gave him a referral for physical therapy. And he also gave him a referral for a different surgeon for a 2nd opinion and told him to use that if his shoulder doesn't improve a lot after a few weeks of physical therapy. Frank definitely has seen some improvement in his pain level since getting the shot, which we're grateful for. And I hope the physcial therapy helps and that he won't need surgery. He got a call from the doctor's office today to let him know that his A1C is 5.4, which is great!! (Anything above 6.5 is prediabetic and above 7.0 is diabetic so he is well below the prediabetes level.)

I spent a lot of time on Wednesday and Thursday working on next week's Seminary lessons and I have one completely done and the second one mostly done. I'm trying to avoid working on them on the weekends...it was really nice to not worry about lessons last weekend. 

The weather here has cooled down quite a bit the last couple of days. It's been cold enough in the mornings that I have needed a coat (not a heavy one) and we switched from A/C to heat last night. It's still very pleasant during the days so no complaints!

I took a friend with me to the temple today. One of the sisters I minister to asked me if I could give her a ride. Originally, I planned to do initiatories today but my friend couldn't get an appointment to do that (they fill up fast) so I cancelled my appointment and made an appointment to do an endowment session instead and we went to that together. Another good friend from our ward was there in our session with her husband, too, so that was nice. 

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

Weekly Review October 3 '25

 It's October, and it's starting to feel like fall. The mornings have been quite chilly, but the days warm up nicely. The weekend was quite eventful, but the rest of the week has been fairly quiet, with just the usual things going on, for the most part.

As usual, Saturday is a blur that I don't remember much about. I do remember that I woke up earlier than I wanted to but since I couldn't go back to sleep, I got up and worked on some stuff for Seminary. Frank needed to get some protein shakes from Costco and since I didn't want him to life them (because of his shoulder), I went with him. After Costco we also went to a grocery store so I could get a few items for Seminary birthday treats. I spent a good portion of the day working on Seminary lessons and finished preparations for both of this week's lessons. 

Frank woke up hours before I did on Sunday morning. The first thing he said to me when I woke up was "BYU won their game last night". (It started so late that we didn't stay up to watch it; actually, I don't think we could have watched it anyway...just listened or monitored the game via the internet.) I said "Oh good!" and we had a short conversation about the score and so forth. Then Frank said "Oh, and Pres. Nelson passed away last night." I said "What???!" It took a few seconds for me to even process what he said. I couldn't believe he didn't tell me that first! He will never live that one down!! 😂 Of course, we are kind of sad but Pres Nelson lived such a long and beautiful life that we can't feel too bad about it. And we're sure he's happy, so we're happy for him!

We went to church as usual...Frank always has to be there 30 minutes early. I used that time to make some copies and Tammy and I also met briefly to discuss an evaluation for one of our Seminary students for his BYU application. On the way home, we talked about the lessons we had in EQ and RS and then right after we got home Frank said "Oh, and Bro. H told us at the end of EQ that there's an active shooter situation happening right now at an LDS church in Michigan." I said "What??!!" Man, he did that to me twice in one day!! We don't have cable television anymore (got tired of paying for something we hardly ever use) so I got on the internet to see what I could find out. Of course, we were horrified and saddened by that tragic event. (Not to minimize what happened, but in retrospect, we're grateful that it wasn't worse than it was because it could have been a lot worse.)

I talked to both Jared and Tanner that afternoon. When we talked to Tanner late last week, he told us that he was probably going to get to meet Pres Nelson on Tuesday because he was going with one of his coworkers (who knows Pres Nelson well) to deliver a couple of suits to his office. So when we heard about Pres Nelson's passing, I felt sad for Tanner for that missed opportunity. When I talked to Tanner, though, he wasn't disappointed. He said "Mom, I remember a story in Church history about someone who travelled to Nauvoo to meet Joseph Smith but arrived a few days after he was martyred. That person said 'I didn't have to meet him to know he was a prophet' and that's how I feel. I didn't get to meet Pres Nelson, but I didn't have to meet him to know he is a prophet." I thought that was so sweet, and it helped me to feel better too. 

Seth was scheduled to receive his patriarchal blessing that evening and we went with him to that. The patriarch lives about 30 minutes away from us. When we got there, the patriarch took Seth to another room to get acquainted with him for a few minutes while we talked to the patriarch's wife. We were sitting in an enclosed porch and the first thing Frank said was "nice sauna". I hadn't actually noticed it, but then I did and noticed that it had a Finnish flag on the outside. The patriarch's wife said "thank you, and thank you for pronouncing 'sauna' correctly!" I told her I have a brother who served a mission in Finland and it turns out that her husband also served a mission in Finland (long before Tim did...actually before Tim was born!) and then later she and her husband served a temple mission in Finland. The temple president who was serving at the time they served their temple mission was one of Tim's mission presidents when he served in Finland, so that was cool to find out. And then we found out that she and I also have a connection because she grew up in Mt. Airy, NC which is in my mission's boundaries and when I told her I served in Kernersville, she said that she was baptized (at age 8) in the Colfax Ward, which is the ward I served in when I was in Kernersville. So that was cool too! Seth got his blessing and it was beautiful. I don't remember details now, of course, but I remember the two thoughts I had as I listened. One was that Heavenly Father knows Seth. The other was that Heavenly Father is okay with where Seth is at in his life right now and that He's a lot more patient with Seth than Frank and I are. Which isn't too surprising, since He's perfect and we aren't. 😊But it's kind of hard for me to explain what I mean. Frank and I have been pretty anxious about how he is using his time (he's not doing bad things, just seems like he wastes far too much time on video games and things like that) and we'd like him to be more open to the idea of serving a mission and to be preparing for that. So it was actually really comforting to me to get the distinct impression that Heavenly Father understands perfectly where Seth is at and He's okay with it and that He's working in Seth's life. 

And in saying that, I hope I don't sound too negative about Seth because actually there is so much that is good in him. He is almost always cheerful and helps out willingly with things that we ask him to do and I have seen him show a lot of compassion for Frank the last several weeks as his shoulder has been hurting a lot (and he has stepped up and helped more too). He has also shown a lot of compassion to me when he sees that I am struggling a bit with the burden of Seminary. He also willingly participates in Church meetings and service and it is obvious to me that he has a testimony, even though I don't think he really realizes that he does. After the patriarch gave him his blessing, he stood up and shook his hand...and then he hugged him too. That is just how Seth is!

Like I said...the weekend was busy but now there is not a lot more to write about. Seminary has gone better this week. I still felt a bit down on Monday, but the rest of the week I've felt better. The girl who was upset and didn't come to Seminary the last two days last week did come on Monday and has come all week and seems to be fine now, so I am happy about that. My lesson on Monday felt like a muddled mess to me but Tuesday was a little better. Because it's General Conference this weekend, I know I won't have time to work on lessons, so I was really motivated this week to get them prepared earlier. I got one of them done on Wednesday and the other one done yesterday, so I'm happy about that. I will still need to look them over / review them before Monday just so I don't forget what I'm doing, but other than that they are ready to go.

There wasn't any school yesterday (Yom Kippur) so of course there was no Seminary. I've been working on getting to bed earlier this week (my official bedtime is 8:00 pm, but it often seems to creep back to 8:30 or even 9:00 a lot of nights lately) and I didn't want to get off my schedule, so I went to bed on Wednesday night at 8:00 and then I didn't wake up until 5:00 the next morning. That felt amazing!!! I wasn't tired at all yesterday. I went out on the deck around 6:30 and there were 5 deer grazing out there:

I watched them until they all ran away but when I glanced out my bedroom window around 7:00, I was surprised to see that they were back and that they had moved much closer to my backyard. They were actually right up against one of our neighbor's fences and hanging their heads into his yard and nibbling on some of his plants! Then they walked over into the backyard right next to ours and then wandered into the yard of the neighbor who's yard backs to ours, and enjoyed a few of that neighbor's plants as well (pictures aren't great because I was taking them through my window):

On Wednesday Frank and I watched the tribute for Pres Nelson. (Frank didn't watch all of it because he needed to get back to work.) Frank and I have been able to go on a couple of walks this week and we've watched a few episodes of the show we are watching together (Once Upon a Time)...mostly while we are eating dinner. A few days ago I looked up how many seasons / episodes there are of this show, and there are 7 seasons with 22 episodes in each season. We are only on episode 14 of season 1, so we will be watching this show for a while! I haven't had a lot of free time this week but I have done some coloring (still haven't finished either picture). I haven't sewed the embellishments on the hats yet but after I do that I will start on a small quilting project. 

We've had a bunch of issues with Comcast this week. The short story is that in order to solve a problem they decided that we needed a new modem. Then yesterday Frank asked Seth to return the old modem to Comcast, which he did and then our internet went down. Frank was on the phone with them for hours yesterday getting that fixed and then today our phones quit working so he had to call about that and they are still trying to work all that out. You'd think we could return an old piece of equipment without losing all our services!! Doesn't even make sense!! Although when Frank was talking to them today we discovered (by looking at the return receipt they gave us) that they actually recorded that we had "returned" the new modem instead of the old one...which is probably what is causing all the problems. I'm pretty fed up with this company--we've been having all kinds of issues with them since March--but unfortunately there is not currently another high fast internet option for us in our area and Frank has to have high speed internet for his job, so we're stuck until another option becomes available. I know...first world problems!!...it's just annoying.

This morning I went to the temple as usual. I struggled a bit to stay awake (didn't get as much sleep last night as I did the previous night) but overall it was really nice.

That's our update for this week. I hope everyone enjoys General Conference!