Weekly Review June 27 '20

Finally, I have something to write about. This week was pretty eventful...most of it good, although some of it wasn't.

Jared & Jessie are here visiting...they arrived last Saturday (the 20th). Jared came over Saturday evening to have dinner and visit with us (Jessie was spending some time with her dad) and we all went on a walk together too.

On Sunday, the Hatch family invited us to have lunch with them at Jessie's grandparents' house so that we could all celebrate Father's Day together. They grilled chicken & hot dogs and made a bean salad and we brought buns, chips, and dessert. All the kids went swimming for a little while (not something any of us would normally do on a Sunday, but this was a special occasion) and then the kids plus some of the adults played some volleyball.

Unfortunately, shortly after I took that last photo, Frank dived for the ball, fell, and broke the ring finger on his right hand. I actually missed the whole thing and didn't even realize he had fallen until he came over and sat down next to me and said "I think I broke my finger." (The entire Hatch family told me later that they were really surprised he had broken a bone because he didn't even yelp or react in any way when he fell.) We put some ice on it and I drove home so he wouldn't have to. At home, he called our doctor and they said he had to do a televisit first so he did that. The doctor who talked to him said his hand / finger definitely looked swollen. She told him to see how it looked Monday morning and if it looked worse (or didn't look any better) that he should go in to get it x-rayed, and she sent in an order so that he could get that done if needed.

I forgot to mention that before going to the Hatch's, Frank did open some cards and a gift from the boys, I made him breakfast, and our ward had an online EQ meeting that he attended. (His gift from me will be a bike, but I didn't want to pick that out without input from him.) After we got back from the Hatch's, he got to talk to both Scott and Tanner on the phone.

The gift from the boys is a breakfast sandwich maker, which is one of the things he asked for.

Monday morning his finger / hand looked worse--still swollen, and now he had a dark bruised area on his palm, just under the ring finger. He had work to do some work that morning so he didn't make it in to get his hand x-rayed until mid afternoon and we didn't get the results until Tuesday. Meanwhile, he had an overnight install Monday night although thankfully this one didn't take as long as usual so he got home by 3:00 am. Jessie was spending some time with her sisters and some friends on Monday afternoon so Jared came over for the afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. He visited with us and played games with Seth.

On Tuesday Frank called the doctor back and got the results of the x-ray, which confirmed that he had a bad break over the bottom knuckle of his finger. He had to get in to see an orthopedic doctor that afternoon. They put a special splint on it and told him he must keep the finger bent (he can't straighten it) for at least 6 - 8 weeks.  (If he does, he might have permanent tendon damage). He has to get it checked in 2 weeks to make sure it is healing properly. The doctor says it is going to take at least 2 months to heal and will be quite painful and a long rehabilitation process. How fun!!

(He's holding that soft ball because his hand gets tired being in that position. The ball gives his hand something to rest on.)

Meanwhile, on Monday and Tuesday I was busy with all the regular chores plus I was trying to get ready / pack for our trip. I also had book chat on Tuesday evening...we did it online, but next time we are going to meet in person again. :)  Our stake was having an online Women's Conference from Saturday through Thursday also. Every day there was one or two pre-recorded classes that I could watch and most evenings they had a live Q & A session with one of the class presenters. I didn't end up being able to attend any of the live sessions, but I did watch a number of the classes and really enjoyed them.

On Wednesday we headed to the beach! The Hatch family wanted to take Jared & Jessie to the beach with them and invited us to come too. Frank has too many projects going on at work right now so he couldn't go but Seth and I went. I felt bad leaving him home alone with a broken finger (it's amazing how many things you can't do when you only have the use of one hand!) but we had already planned this trip weeks ago and paid for the place to stay and everything. Frank said he'd be okay, and he did manage all right while we were gone. (And honestly, he probably appreciated the peace & quiet!) Jared & Jessie came in our car with us (as a matter of fact, Jared drove the whole time which was awesome) so we got to visit with them a lot. We went to Ocean City, Maryland which is about 4 hours from Frederick. We had rented a 2 bedroom condo that was only a few blocks from the beach. Actually, we were on a strip of land with the ocean on one side and an inlet on the other, so we had water on both sides of us. We arrived about 40 minutes before we could check into our place, so we parked and walked down to the beach to see the ocean. The sand was quite hot and the beach was fairly crowded, but the ocean view was beautiful. After we checked into the condo and got all of our stuff situated, we decided to go get an early dinner (about 4:30) since none of us had eaten lunch (we just ate snacks on the car ride). That turned out to be a really good idea because the restaurant was nearly empty. We went to a place that had pizza and sandwiches. I got a Reuben sandwich and it was decent, but not great. After we had dinner, we headed back to the beach (in swimsuits this time) and that was also perfect timing because the sand had cooled down and a ton of people were just leaving the beach to go get dinner so the beach was a lot less crowded. The older kids all got into the water up to their necks, but Seth and I contented ourselves with wading on the edge of the shore and only got wet up to our thighs. (The water was really cold!!) We enjoyed watching birds and picking up rocks and shells that washed up and watching the waves. It's actually really incredible to me how vast the ocean is and what an amazing eco-system it is. I just stood there marveling at the wonder of God's creations. It was a nice evening, and we didn't leave until the sun was starting to go down.

The room that Seth and I shared.

Some of the wall decor in the condo

Seth enjoyed being buried in the sand...

 ...twice!!

Playing ball

The bird had just pulled that shellfish out of the sand.

When it started to get dark, we went back to the condo, took showers, and played some games and ate snacks before going to bed.

I woke up pretty early on Thursday (about 5:30 am) and never went back to sleep...oh well! We had reservations that morning to do some paddle boarding / kayaking. Jared & Jessie and Jessie's sisters all did paddle boarding. Brother & Sister Hatch rented a 2 seater kayak and Seth & I rented another one. After a brief paddling lesson, we were off! We enjoyed paddling around the inlet and seeing wildlife. It was definitely a workout, and I thought I would have very sore muscles the next day but I only felt very mild discomfort in my shoulders.

After all that exercise, we got some lunch 'cause we were starving! Then we went back to the beach for a few hours. We stayed until it started to rain.

(That's Jared, Jessie, and Jessie's two sisters in the water.)

Seth built a sand castle

We saw some dolphins out in the water!

Seth got buried in sand again.

Storm coming in

Thankfully, the rain didn't last long. We all took showers and then went to dinner. We went to a restaurant that mostly had seafood, but they also had chicken fingers for Seth. :) The restaurant wasn't very busy at all, but for some reason it took about 45 minutes to get our food after we ordered it. The food was good though (I had a yummy crabcake sandwich) and the view from our table was nice too. (It's actually the same inlet where we went paddle boarding / kayaking earlier).

After dinner we went to the boardwalk to see the sights and do some shopping. Seth acquired a hammerhead shark stuffed animal, I got a t-shirt, and we also got some fudge.

Seth with is shark and some fudge

Sand sculptures:

We also got ice cream cones before heading back to the condo:

The boardwalk was the most crowded place we went while on our trip. We only had to wear masks when we went to restaurants and into stores. The rest of the time, it was pretty easy to stay 6 feet (or more) away from other people. Most of the trip, it felt like we were mostly back to normal life, which was really nice for a change!

I woke up in the middle of the night and was awake for a few hours but I did finally go back to sleep, thankfully. (The only complaint I have about where we stayed was that it was pretty noisy. Lots of car horns honking, sirens, dogs barking and loud people in the middle of the night).

Seth asleep with his hammerhead shark on Friday morning.

We had to check out by 10:00 am Friday morning, so we just ate and packed and cleaned everything up. We were planning to go on a speed boat ride on our way out of Ocean City but when we got there the next several trips were already booked up and we would have had to wait 2 or 3 hours to get onto the next trip so we didn't do that after all. Jessie and her mom and sisters wanted to go to a thrift store they had heard about but when we got there we found out it was open by appointment only. We stopped at a souvenir shop on our way back to the car and I don't think any of us bought anything but I did take a few pictures.

I thought these salt & pepper shakers were cute but I didn't buy them since I have so many sets already.

They had all 4 of my kids' names on these keychains, so I had to take a picture of that. I also found Frank's name, but of course they didn't have mine (no one ever does). However, they did have this one, which really surprised us so I had to take a photo of this one to share with my brother:

After that stop, we drove all the way home with only 2 brief stops to get some lunch and to fill up the gas tank. The GPS took us a different route than the way we got there, and we went through Delaware on our way home. We got to the Hatch's house by about 3:00 pm to drop off Jared and Jessie and then headed home. We spent the rest of the evening unpacking and doing laundry.

Today I've been very busy all day catching up on all the things I didn't get done the last few days. I folded laundry, mowed the lawn (Seth helped), vacuumed & swept, updated the budget, cleaned the kitchen floor, practiced ukulele, and did a couple of things (not much!) for my music and activities callings. And now I'm almost done with the weekly blog post too! (It's just like the old days, when I had a long list of things to do most days.) Jared & Jessie are coming over soon and will have dinner with us too. They return to Utah on Monday, so their visit is almost over.

Last night I went out on our deck and discovered that there are a lot more fireflies out now than there were a week ago. That made me happy! :) In other news...Scott decided recently that he needs to be in a different atmosphere as he is trying to become more active and involved with church again (nothing wrong with his roommates and they are very supportive of his desire to change...but they are inactive too) so he decided to move in with my mom for a while. It is really kind of her to take him in (and his dog!), and I hope he will be a big help to her while he's there (yardwork, fix things, etc). He ended up moving sooner than he anticipated, and just got all of his stuff moved over last night. We are proud of him for having the determination and courage to make changes in his life, and trust that this will be a good thing for him.

Weekly Review June 19 '20

I thought I didn't have much to write about last week, but I think this week has been even more uneventful, so this'll be short.

Frank: I said this week would be crazy for him, and it was. He had overnight installs on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. The two earlier this week were here in Frederick, but last night's install was in Cumberland, Maryland which is about 2 hours from here. Since he had to work overnight on Wednesday also and that is a long drive to make when you're sleepy, he got a hotel room so that when he was done working he could go somewhere to sleep for several hours before having to drive back home. (The company paid for the hotel room.) He was done by about 1:00 am and slept until 8:00 am and then drove back home. I'm glad he got some sleep, but I think he's still pretty tired since he had such a busy week.

Seth: He's enjoying being done with school and doing pretty well at keeping busy during the (many) hours that he doesn't have screen time. Last night for Deacon's activity they had planned to do some service for a lady in our ward but it was outdoor painting and since it rained a ton on Wednesday and was supposed to rain more last night / today, she decided they should do it another time. Instead, they had a presidency meeting (online) and planned their activities for July. Earlier this week he and I decided to watch a movie and when we were choosing something to watch, I realized he's never seen Pirates of the Caribbean, so we watched that. As I expected, he loved it and since then he's watched the next two movies in that series (I didn't watch with him because I was doing other things.)

Me: I've come to the conclusion that I am basically lazy. I'm mostly doing the same things as always but I planned to do some deep cleaning of the house this week--didn't do it. Well, I did clean all the windows (and they were really dirty) but other than that, I didn't do anything. I was partly hampered by the fact that I was trying to be quiet during the day on a lot of days so that Frank could get some sleep, but I can't use that as a full excuse! I would just rather read or do word puzzles than clean house...go figure! I didn't start on any new projects, either, but I will soon. I've been reading a few books for fun, and a couple of other books which are at least somewhat educational (although topics I'm interested in, so that's also fun).

Fireflies: The fireflies finally started appearing this week. They're one of the things I love the most about summer in Maryland! (I don't love the humidity.) The last several years there haven't been as many fireflies, sadly, as there used to be but there are still a few. Seth and I went for a walk last night over to a nearby park where there were more fireflies than we see behind our house (but still not a lot). He enjoyed trying to catch fireflies and I enjoyed just watching them (and getting out of the cold air conditioned house for a while).

Air conditioner: Speaking of air conditioning, we had our air conditioner serviced yesterday and the guy who looked at it said that he's getting a lower frion reading than normal (something like that) which indicates that the system is starting to wear out. Not a huge surprise, since it's 27 years old. He says it could last another year or two or it could go out tomorrow. So we are going to get a quote on what it will cost to get it replaced, but I'm not sure if we'll decide to replace it now or take a chance that it's going to last a while longer. Honestly, I'm more willing to wait since the heat doesn't bother me as much (I actually get too cold with A/C...I'm wearing socks and a hoodie right now because I was too cold) but Frank really does suffer from the heat so I think he's really worried about the A/C going out in the middle of a heat wave. We'll get the quote and go from there.

Haircuts: The most exciting news of the week is that Seth and I both got haircuts!! So funny that something like a haircut can be exciting, but it is. One of the many things we've been taking for granted all these years that we now appreciate better. Actually, Seth wasn't very excited to get a haircut--he doesn't care if his hair is long and he hates getting haircuts--but I think he looks so much better with short hair. (He is actually getting really difficult about haircuts. He must have some sensitivity issues or something because he freaks out over the clippers and even struggles with scissors touching the back of his neck. He's never liked haircuts, but he's actually getting worse as he gets older instead of better.) I got a cut and got the color done too and I'm sooooo happy to have pretty hair again. I mean, overall, my hair has not looked as bad as I would have expected after over 3 months without a cut or the color done, but it still didn't look great. It's so much easier to style when it's shorter, too.

I was super disappointed this week when they announced that the DC Temple Open House and Re-Dedication has been postponed "indefinitely". I mean, I wasn't too surprised--I've kind of been expecting it--but I'm still sad about it. This will push the reopening beyond 3 years since the temple closed--feels like we're never going to get our temple back! I miss going to the temple, and now I can't even hope that I'll get to go to the temple when we visit Utah since it's not too likely the temples will be open up for all ordinances again by then. But we'll see, I guess. The announcement said that the DC open house will happen when "gathering in large crowds is deemed safe", which doesn't seem likely to happen for a long, long time yet. I'm really glad I got to go to the temple when we were Arizona...I had no idea then that it would be so long until I could go again.

That's literally everything I can think of to tell you about this week...not much!! I'm going to try to be a bit less lazy this next week, and maybe I'll have more to talk about. (Plus we're going on a short trip, so that will be more interesting.) I really have appreciated having a lot more down time these last 3 months--it's been a much needed rest!! Yes, it's come at a price and I sometimes wonder if we'll ever get back to normal life (seems a long way off still) but I'm trying to enjoy the good things.

Weekly Review June 12 '20

I don't think I have much to report this week, but I will try to think of a few things.

School: Is over for the year. Hooray!! Seth just had to do two assignments for one of his classes (one on Monday and one on Tuesday). He ended up getting straight A's again, so we're happy about that. He filled out a survey about distance learning on Wednesday and yesterday we went to the school to pick up the things he left in his locker. (Someone brought his things out to us...we did't even have to get out of the car). I made him go through all his papers to decide what he wanted to keep and what could be thrown away. I'm glad we have one less thing to worry about until fall, although hopefully Seth will keep learning some things over the summer.

Weather: It's not as hot as it was last week...we're back in the 70s and 80s, which is nice. It's been very humid, though, so it still feels pretty hot. (But I feel like the air conditioner is running constantly, so I'm actually really cold most of the time.) We had a couple of thunderstorms mid-week. We've been on a couple of walks, and get quite sticky due to the humidity.

Frank's work: He's still really busy, but this week was not nearly so bad. He had one overnight installation on Wednesday night, and he didn't get home until 7:30 Thursday morning. That was his only overnight shift this week though and yesterday he actually didn't have to work much although he still didn't get much sleep. He went to bed by 9:30 last night, though, and slept solid all night so he's feeling better now. Next week is going to be pretty crazy again, I'm afraid.

Me: I'm mostly doing the same things, but I did get to do a few different things this week. On Tuesday I met my friend Rebekah at a park and we sat 6 feet apart from each other and talked for a few hours. That was really nice to get caught up with her! On Wednesday I was working on a project and discovered I needed more thread so I went to the fabric store to get some. That's the first time I'd been there since March (it just re-opened recently) and it was nice to browse around. I figured since I was there anyway I should get some other supplies for some other projects I've been working on or wanting to do, so I did that. (Turned out to be a very expensive spool of thread...haha!) I finished the project I've been working on last night so now I have what I need for some other projects. (I will share details and photos of the project I just finished at a later date.) I'm still doing a lot of reading, but I've been watching fewer home improvement shows and doing more puzzles (word and logic puzzles). Next week I am going to start doing some deep cleaning (too bad houses don't stay clean). On Saturday, Frank had to drive down to Walfdorf, Maryland to do some work for a client and I went with him to keep him company (it's a bit of a drive). It was nice to spend some time with him, especially since I barely saw him all week. I would like to get my hair cut (hasn't been cut since early March) but the hair salon I've been going to for 15+ years has not opened back up yet (and I have no idea if it is ever going to open back up). Most hair salons opened back up last Friday. So now I'm trying to figure out another place to go, and I need to find a place for Seth to go too since I took him to the same place I went to get his hair cut. Wish us luck!

Virtual Meetings: We had a ward testimony meeting on Sunday and Seth had his Sunday School class too. He also had Bishop's youth council, but somehow we totally forgot about that (it was on my calendar and we were both remembering it that morning) and neither of us even realized it until last night. Whoops! He had a Deacon's activity last night (they played a New Testament trivia game). I also attended a virtual awards ceremony last night for The United Way because they were giving the outstanding volunteer organization award to the VITA program (the volunteer income tax assistance program that I participated in this year). So that was pretty cool; I enjoyed that.

Other than that, not much is going on for us and I've avoided watching the news and getting on social media this week, for the most part, so I feel a lot happier! (I know...burying my head in the sand, I suppose, but I'm more at peace this way.)

Jared & Jessie are coming for a visit the end of next week and Seth & I are going to go to the beach for a couple of days with them and Jessie's family (Frank is too busy to go) so that is going to be fun and we're really looking forward to that!

I'll finish up with a few photos from our last walk.

Weekly Review June 5 '20

My first weekly review for June...sometimes it seems like this year is going by really fast but other times it seems like it's been an eternity since the beginning of the year. (Or actually, it seems like it's been an eternity since the middle of March!) We have a lot of the same stuff going on, but maybe I will think of something new & interesting to tell you. So let's start with the weather...haha--such an exciting topic!!

Weather: We had some hot summer weather this week. We jumped from temperatures in the high 70's on Tuesday to temperatures in the 90's on Wednesday. That was quite a shock! We had absolutely beautiful sunny skies and moderate temperatures with slight breezes over the weekend and up through Tuesday, and we really enjoyed that. Frank and I went on some long walks (but haven't managed a walk since then). The only down side is that all that time spent outside caused my allergies to act up quite a bit--sneezing and itchy, red eyes. Wednesday was the hottest day--it's not quite so bad now--and last night and this afternoon we had some pretty decent thunderstorms.

Virtual Activities: We had a meeting with our whole ward on Sunday, which focused on family history. Seth tuned in for a couple of meetings for school classes. He also had a Deacon's quorum presidency meeting on Tuesday evening and a visit with his therapist on Wednesday afternoon. There was an activity for the Primary children ages 7 - 11 on Thursday afternoon, and this time I didn't forget to join that. It was fun to see some of the girls in my activity group and the kids are all so cute and funny! We talked about things they are learning from the scriptures, some of the fun things they've been doing, and some of them shared about one of the goals they're working on. Seth had his usual weekly Deacon's activity on Thursday evening...they shared jokes & riddles with each other.

School: We got the very welcome news early this week that even though the official last day of school isn't until June 17th, the last assignments would be given out today. Monday and Tuesday of next week they will be finishing up any assignments. On Wednesday, we are supposed to check his grades and decide if we want to request letter grades (everyone automatically gets a Pass or Incomplete, unless we request letter grades), and on Thursday Seth has to fill out a survey about distance learning. From Friday through the following Wednesday (last day of school) there will be some online presentations presenting ideas for learning over the summer (not sure he's even required to watch any of them). So what this really means is that as of today, he's basically done with school--even though there's technically a week and a half left. One of his teachers gave them two short assignments to do on Monday and Tuesday, but none of the others did, so he won't have much to do at all next week. We will be going to the school on Thursday to pick up the items he left in his locker. I actually already checked Seth's grades and requested that he receive letter grades because he has either an A or a B in each of his classes. I think he's done a really good job getting his work done, but I'm still glad we're almost done!

Frank: Have I been saying that Frank's been really busy? That was nothing compared to this week! He had overnight installs on Monday and Tuesday nights (got home at 4:30 am Tuesday morning and 1:00 am Wednesday morning). And yes...he did work most of the day on Monday and Tuesday also. On Wednesday he was back at work by 10:00 am and worked all day. Then an emergency came up around 4:00 pm and he had to go to a restaurant to help solve the problem, and he didn't get home until about 1:00 am again. He worked mostly a full day on Thursday too, and that evening he had to go to three stores to do some work after hours. Thankfully, it didn't take too long but he was gone from 10:00 pm to about 11:30 pm. Today he ended up working mostly a full day too. So yes...I barely saw him this week. I really don't know how he keeps functioning. In spite of all the work, he still managed to exercise at least a few times this week. He's really trying to take care of himself.

Me: So what did I do while Frank was gone working all the time? Apparently I read a lot because I read the 13th Wings of Fire book and I also read the book for book chat. (I just got a copy of it about 3 or 4 days ago). The book we're reading this month is called Where the Crawdads Sing (by Delia Owens, I think). I just finished it last night and I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's definitely going to make for an interesting discussion! I read some reviews online today and it seems like people who have read it either really, really love it or they really hate it! It will be interesting to see how the ladies in my book group feel about it. Besides reading, I did do all the usual things like supervising Seth's school work as well as laundry, cooking, cleaning, yardwork, and shopping. I worked on my project too and today I reached a milestone. I only have one more thing to do and it will be done (so I should finish it next week).

The World in General: I haven't been very happy to see continued evidence of cruelty and prejudice in the world, and I have also been upset by all the violence we've been seeing lately. I think more than anything, though, I am dismayed and discouraged to see how unkind people can be to each other when they have differing opinions on issues, current events, and how they should be handled. A lot of misunderstandings, a lot of judging, a lot of jumping to conclusions, and a lack of listening and trying to understand another person's point of view. I'm not saying I'm perfect at doing those things myself--I need to listen more too. I wish everyone in the world would try harder! But to end on a positive note--it was really fun to watch the rocket launch on Saturday and to see the astronauts arrive at the International Space Station on Sunday. Listening to the people in the control room cheer when the rocket successfully launched brought back a lot of memories! It's encouraging to see what human beings can accomplish when we work together.

To finish up, here are some pictures I took on our walk on Saturday: