Weekly Review May 14 '21

 Life is definitely speeding up, after over a year of being so slow. Mostly I'm glad, because so far life hasn't become too busy. I hope we've learned enough in the last year about what things are really necessary and what things aren't, so that we can focus on the necessary and important and not go back to filling life with too many things that aren't really necessary or important.

I honestly don't remember what I did last Friday or Saturday. Probably just the usual things, since I can't remember anything! Seth and Frank did some Mother's Day shopping on Saturday. Oh yes, and I just remembered Frank and I took some flowers over to a family in our ward because the mom's brother died suddenly this week. Three of the girls in the family are in YW. The oldest daughter (Kristina), who is 19, was home but the rest of the family had gone to Massachusetts for the funeral. We thought they would be back the next day but when we took the flowers over there, Kristina said the funeral wasn't going to be until the following Saturday (tomorrow) so none of them would be back until after that. She was there at home without a car, so we told her to let us know if she needed anything and I also let the RS president know what was going on.

Sunday was Mother's Day, of course, and it was a nice. Seth and Frank gave me some cards and they also gave me this fruit bouquet:

And these chocolate covered strawberries:

They made me breakfast and they also made dinner and cleaned up all the dishes afterwards so I had a lovely relaxing day and didn't have to cook. Nice!!

We had a combined on-line lesson with the RS and YW which was really lovely.

Scott and Tanner both called me and Jared texted me. Tanner & Darlee sent me this necklace and some homemade cards, all created by Darlee (including the necklace):

I love it!

I really enjoyed talking to the boys and to my own mom, too!

Sunday may have been a nice day, but the weather wasn't so nice. The high temperature for the day was in the low 50s. I actually wore a sweater dress to church--in May! The weather stayed pretty cool for a lot of the week...it started warming back up yesterday. We had to switch back over to heat on Sunday because we were just too cold! I can't remember a year where we have had to switch back and forth between heater and A/C so much. Overall, I prefer that it be a little on the cool side though. I hate it when we go straight from the 60s to the 90s, which seems to happen a lot. I really like the in between 70s and 80s temperatures, and we are getting more of those days in between the colder ones.

Frank had a late night job on Monday night that kept him up until about 1:00 am Tuesday morning. Then he had an overnight job on Tuesday...didn't get home until 7:00 am on Wednesday morning. So he had a pretty busy week. Tuesday there were emergencies and problems to solve so he worked a lot that day. Thankfully, he didn't have to work much on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, Seth had school as usual on Monday and Tuesday and I worked at VITA most of the day Monday and Tuesday. I got to VITA a bit late on Monday because Kristina contacted us that morning to see if I could take her to get a Covid test. She had decided to go up to Massachusetts to be with her family but she had to have a negative Covid test before she could travel. I picked her up right after I dropped Seth off at school and luckily there wasn't a long line at the testing place so she was able to get tested fairly quickly. Frank picked up Seth from school for me again on Monday so that I could stay later. Yesterday I went in to VITA in the late afternoon to meet with a taxpayer. Her return had a balance due and she has never had to pay before so she wanted someone to go over it with her to help her understand why. To prepare for that, I looked over all her information again and noticed that her dependent son was a full time student but she hadn't given us any documents for college expenses she paid. So I asked one of the other volunteers to contact her to see if she had paid college expenses and if so, if she had documentation for those expenses. It turns out that she had paid college expenses and she brought the documentation with her, so once we put that information in she ended up having a refund instead. So she was pretty happy about that. It was nice for me to actually meet with a taxpayer in person...only one I got to do that with this year. I'm looking forward to doing that again next year! I will be reviewing some more returns later today and probably tomorrow, but the site coordinator told me yesterday that we only have around 8 returns left that haven't been completed, so it looks like we are going to get everything done by the filing deadline on Monday. What a relief!

We had family night on Monday before Frank had to leave for his late night job...we played frisbee gold on the Wii, and by some stroke of luck I won the game. On Tuesday Seth and I had in-person youth activities. I forgot that he was supposed to meet at a park in Walkersville for his activity and didn't realize it until it was too late for me to take him (it was already a few mintues after starting time and I had to stay at the YW activity because we have to have two adults there all the time). Luckily, one of the moms who was dropping off her daughter at the YW activity lived near the park and was able to take Seth back with her and drop him off at the park for his activity. The YM played frisbee gold (actual frisbee golf, instead of the Wii version). The YW played pickle ball and also a game called "gravel". Everyone seemed to have fun but it was only in the 50s and windy, so it was pretty cold. I was wearing a sweater and a hoodie over that, and I was still cold. Our activity finished earlier than the YM activity, thankfully since I needed to pick up Seth and he was about 15 mintues away. I actually got to the park just as they were finishing up and starting to head to their cars, so that was perfect timing.

I didn't sleep well at all on Tuesday night...kept waking up and then woke up around 2:00 am and stayed awake until 6:00. Then I woke up again at 7:00 when Frank came home and I had to get up at that point. So I was pretty tired on Wednesday. It was a fairly busy day, though...at least, the evening was. I made dinner to for the Elders and since they live really close to us, I walked it over to them. After we had our dinner, I had a short presidency meeting with my class presidency (online). Then right after that I went to a RS activity. It was the first in-person RS activity we've had in over a year. We potted some flowers to take to a shelter for women and children and then we planted more flowers in a courtyard of a nursing home that is right next door to our church building. The people at the nursing home were really appreciative and it was fun to visit with other women while we planted. It was only about an hour, but it was really nice to get outside for a little while (it was warmer than Tuesday!) and to be uplifted by conversations with other women. I'm glad I went!

On Wednesday I also got a package with a gift from Jared and Scott. They got me a big bag of gourmet black licorice (they know what I like!!) and also a spatula, which made me laugh. It's kind of a joke in our family that I always get a spatula or some other kitchen utensil (like large stirring spoons) for a gift. So they mostly did that as a joke, but I am actually really happy because it's a nice spatula. We have one spatula that Frank and I both really like...we've had it forever but it is the perfect size and it's really durable. All the other spatulas we have purchased since this one have fallen apart rather quickly. So we've been looking for another spatuala like the one we like but have not been able to find one. This new spatula looks like it is made from the same material, so I'm really happy to have it. 

Yesterday I had a YW presidency meeting (online) before I went to VITA to meet with the taxpayer, so yesterday was pretty busy too. I have to say that I just LOVE the women in the presidency that I am working with. They are all so wonderful and working with them is so uplifting and fun! We needed to recommend one of the girls to be the new class president for the older class (we're going to combine the two older classes because they are both so small) so the YW president had asked me to think & pray about that. I didn't put a whole lot of effort into it, but I did pray and I thought about it and one girl just kept coming into my mind whenever I thought about it. When we met yesterday, I told the president that one girl had been on my mind but I wasn't sure I had an answer so I didn't want to say anything yet unless she thought she had an answer (I didn't want to influence her one way or another). She responded that one girl had been on her mind, and when she told me who it was, it was the same girl I had been thinking about. Well, now I'm sure I was getting an answer. In this presidency, we have had that happen to us so many times. I am so grateful!! It never ceases to amaze me when that happens.

Today I have been busy with the usual things...mostly updating the finances. I have a bunch of tax returns to review and that is all I can think of to report, so I'd better post this and get busy on taxes. 

Weekly Review May 7 '21

 I spent the morning doing tax returns and then I updated our budget, so now it is pretty late and I need to make dinner soon. (Well, actually most of it is already made since we're having chicken salad sandwiches and I made the chicken salad this morning.) Anyway, I will try to keep this fairly brief. (You all know how bad I am at keeping things brief!)

Last Saturday (the 1st) I got my hair cut and the color done. The stylist used the same color she always does, but for some reason it looks a lot darker! I like it, but it's kind of weird how dark it is. I can't remember what else I did on Saturday except I worked on a bunch of tax returns. I'm pretty sure I also practiced ukulele and cleaned the kitchen floor, because I usually do that on Saturdays. Oh yes! I just remembered...we also bought a new lawn mower and Seth got to use it right away. Lucky boy! :) 

We mostly did the usual on Sunday...we had online Sunday School classes and then Sacrament meeting in person. After church, Frank went to help an elderly gentleman in our ward with his computer because it was having problems. He got things figured out and fixed pretty quickly. That evening I had an online meeting / training with the stake YW presidency. They mostly wanted to get to know us. It was a good meeting.

I kept busy Monday and Tuesday working at VITA. I took Wednesday off, but I worked on more tax returns last night and again this morning. On Monday evening we were playing a game for family night when our phones went crazy beccause there was a tornado warning for our area and we should "take cover now!". We turned on the weather channel and they had Frederick, Maryland live, saying that rotation was right over the downtown area. It was dark outside but not windy. We went down to the basement for a little while but we kept checking the radar and it looked like we were going to be fine. We did get a lot of rain--it rained really hard! But it never got windy. I think the worst of the storm went north of Frederick because we haven't heard of or seen any damage around Frederick this week either. 

On Tuesday evening Seth had an in-person YM activity...they played gaga ball. He said it was a lot of fun. For YW we had a virtual activity. When I picked up Seth from school that afternoon, I spent about an hour driving around delivering supplies to some of the girls' houses. For our activity, we made Star Wars-themed Mother's Day cards in honor of "May the 4th" and Mother's Day (of course). The cards were really cute and we had a good time talking while we made them. A couple of girls came who don't usually come, so that was great! I had already sent Mother's Day card to both our moms, so instead I made a Star Wars themed Father's Day card for Seth to give to Frank. I'll share a photo of it after Father's Day.

On Wednesday afternoon I had an appointment to renew my driver's license. Going the the MVA (Maryland Vehicle Administration) is never a fun experience and this one ran true to form. In spite of the fact that I had an appointment, they were running way behind and so I waited outside in a long line for nearly an hour (my neck actually got sunburned!) and then waited inside for nearly another hour until it was finally my turn. Getting my license renewed only took about 15 minutes. I had to do it in person this time (instead of by mail) because I was due to get a new photo taken and to have an eye test. I also needed to get a "Real ID" license so I had to present a ton of documents for that. My appointment was at 1:00 and I finally got home around 3:00. That pretty much took up most of my afternoon. Then I talked to Amy on the phone for a couple of hours, which took the rest of the afternoon (but was much more pleasant than going to the MVA). That evening we had an online visit with the Elders serving in our ward. Both of them are fairly new to our area (only been here about 3 weeks) so they are trying to get to know members of the ward. We enjoyed talking to them and getting to know them...they seem to be pretty sharp. One of them is brand new (getting trained) and the other one is one of Izak's former companions, Elder Wayment. He only has 2 months left before he goes home. They asked if they could teach us one of the discussions next time we meet so that the new Elder can get in some practice. So we will be doing that in a few weeks. Elder Wayment asked me on Sunday if I had a relative who had served in this mission...he saw my maiden name on FB and wondered if I might be related to Izak. He was really excited to find out that Izak is my nephew!

Yesterday I had a YW presidency meeting in the afternoon. Last night we went out to eat (I forgot to get meat out of the freezer for dinner) and we decided to try a new place that has just opened up in Frederick called Mission BBQ. I think it may have locations all across the country, so maybe you already know all about it. We liked it. The food was really good and the decor honors all the people serving in the military. I think it is owned by a veteran. I think that is a cool idea.

I have been playing phone tag with the nurse from the cardiologist's office for 2 weeks. I never hear my cell phone ring when she calls, and she never answers her phone when I call her back. This week she decided to leave me a message on my voicemail with the test results (I guess she finally gave up on talking to me in person.) She said my echo showed some mild to moderate "mitro valve regurgitation" which means one of my valves doesn't close tightly which leads to some backflow. That wasn't surprising because I've had a leaky valve at least since I was 20 (which was the first time I ever had an echo done) and possibly it's been there my whole life, so that was nothing new. The doctor wants me to get another echo in a year though. Then she said "your holter test did show...sorry, I'm pulling up your chart..." and then the message cut off!! So I still don't know what the holter results are excpet that something showed up. Probably some a fib, I'm guessing. I once again called her back and left another message to let her know I didn't get the entire message. Hopefully she will call back soon. 

Seth did better at keeping up with his schoolwork this week (the previous 2 weeks he ended up finishing homework on Saturday morning). He started taking his new medication but we are not sure it is working very well. He says he feels like it's harder to focus and I have noticed him acting less focused too. That seems weird, because it is the same medication he was taking before--it's just supposed to stay in his system longer (which also doesn't seem to be happening). I will have to follow up with the doctor on that. Frank is keeping very busy with work, although he hasn't had any overnights the last few weeks. He has more of those coming up, though. He is working really hard on a new database and he is making progress. Hopefully he will be done with that soon. He is still doing well with exercising and eating well. He has lost some weight and he definitely looks thinner to me. 

I'm probably forgetting something, but I can't think of anything else to report about this week. 

Weekly Review April 30 '21

I had quite a few busy days this week, but it actually feels really good to be busy! That's what a year of practically doing nothing will do for you, I guess. 

Last Friday for our anniversary, we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was pretty good, but not fantastic. Afterwards we went to Baker Park and walked around Culler Lake (seems more like a pond to me). It's a really pretty spot. We took a few pictures:

 Yes, Frank purposely made it look like the fountain is coming out of the top of my head in that last one!

We also planned to go to a "paint your own pottery" place but when we got there it was closed. Their website said they were open until 10:00 pm, but they closed at 7:00 pm. So we consoled ourselves by going to Dairy Queen and getting ice cream cones instead. It was a fun evening. Frank got me these beautiful flowers too, which are still looking beautiful so I've been able to enjoy them all week:

Frank was busy doing work for clients on Saturday. I got my first dose of Covid vaccine that morning. The clinic I went to was set up really well so even though there were a ton of people there, we moved through the process really quickly. I barely felt the needle prick part, but my arm felt like it went numb for a few minutes and I felt slightly dizzy for a little while too, which was weird. But mostly I was fine. I had to be observed for 30 minutes afterwards (instead of the usual 15) because I take a baby aspirin every day and that's considered a blood thinner and anyone on a blood thinner has to be observed longer after getting the shot.

I tried to move my arm around a lot for the rest of the day because I've heard that doing that may help with the soreness that a lot of people get afterwards. My arm did get quite sore on Saturday evening and stayed sore all day on Sunday, but only the area around the injection site. (I've heard many people say their whole arm got really sore; so sore they could barely move it.) I woke up in the early hours of the morning on Monday and realized that my arm was feeling a LOT better. By Tuesday it was almost back to normal. I didn't get any of the flu-like symptoms this time around, thankfully. I know a lot of people have more issues after the 2nd shot so we'll see how it goes next time. 

On Sunday morning I checked email shortly after I got up and received an email from Seth's quorum advisor with the link for his class that day. The email also mentioned that the class would be taught by Seth Cleveland. Uh oh! I was pretty sure Seth had forgotten all about that. So I woke him up and I was right--he had forgotten. Luckily, he had a few hours before class started so he had time to prepare the lesson and I hear it went well. We are getting more people for Sacrament meeting these days and it's nice to have a bigger crowd (although plenty of people are still missing). I'm not really remembering the details of what we did each day, but I know I spend most of Sundays reading scriptures and family history books and stuff like that. I always enjoy a day of rest!

On Monday I went in to VITA to work on tax returns for a lot of the day. They opened at 10:00 so I went in at that time and since Frank was able to pick up Seth from school that day, I was able to stay until about 4:30. Frank had dinner ready when I got home, which was really nice! I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but I had several complicated returns I was working on. After dinner we had family night. We played Mario Kart and I am getting better at it. I actually came in third place (out of 12 racers) on 3 of the 4 races. (No, I'm not good enough to beat Frank or Seth yet, but give me time!) 

I went back into VITA on Tuesday...once again at 10:00. I had to pick up Seth at 2:15 (Frank has a meeting every Tuesday afternoon at that time) but I actually got a lot done and even felt like I completed more returns than I did on Monday. I also got this painting:

It was hanging on the wall at VITA, done by a local artist. They were swapping the paintings out and told us they were all for sale if we were interested. I had just been looking at this painting the day before and thinking that I really liked it. I thought any painting would be expensive, but this one was only $25. I don't normally like abstract paintings but this one reminds me of the ocean and it's also shiny so I like it! 

On Tuesday evening we had a combined YM / YW activity. The theme was "Be a Kid Again". Some people met virtually and I hear they did things like draw with sidewalk chalk and make things out of Play Dough. The rest of us (about 10 kids and 4 leaders) met in person. We did things like volleyball and relay races. I think everyone (both virtual and in-person) had a good time. It was actually super warm on Tuesday (highs in the high 80s)--felt like summer! Actually, the weather this week has overall been warmer and even though we had some rain, it's mostly been sunny most days. We had to turn the heater off and turn the A/C back on.

Seth had an orthodontist appointment on Wednesday afternoon. He will be going back in 6 weeks to get the bottom braces put on. I did some work for VITA from home and was able to review 4 tas returns. Wednesday evening we took both our cars to Costco to get the tires rotated and checked--I had a "low tire" warning on my dashboard and Frank has been having to add air to one of his tires a lot recently. It turns out Frank's tire had a nail in it so they repaired that and the sensor on my car was faulty so they replaced it. While the cars were being worked on, we wandered around Costco and purchased a bunch of meat for food storage purposes. We also got some dried fruit and some nuts for snacks. We are trying to find healthier snack options. Frank has been exercising and watching what he eats a lot more closely the past few weeks. He has also stopped eating lunch at Roy Rogers (even though it's free). He has lost several pounds in just the last few weeks. I am also trying to be more careful too and in particular I am trying to avoid sugar as much as possible. 

Yesterday I had a YW presidency meeting in the afternoon...we managed to keep it shorter this time! We found out, though, that our bishop doesn't like the dates that we chose for Girls' Camp, so that's all up in the air again. I hope some decisions can be made soon because we really want to figure out our summer travel plans and really can't do that until I know when Girls' Camp will be. (Plus when Seth will have Camp Helaman, which is a camp our stake does for the boys every year.) In the evening I had book chat. Most people liked the book we read (The Other Bennet Sister) and we had a good discussion. Now we are going to read The Good Neighbor, which is a biography about Fred Rogers. We decided that next time we meet we won't have to wear masks because all of us will be vaccinated by then. That made everyone feel really cheerful!

Today has gone by fast. I wanted to look up something that happened in 2007 so I got out my weekly emails from that time period. I did find what I was looking for, but I also got distracted and ended up reading a bunch of emails from that year. I have to say--I was a LOT busier back then, when I had all four boys at home and one was a baby and another was a teenager! It made me feel tired just reading about it. I had forgotten how hectic that time of my life was. I miss having the boys at home, but I am glad that my life is a lot calmer now. 

For some reason my right eye is swollen. It started looking that way on Wednesday evening and it is still quite swollen. The eye itself doesn't hurt or feel itchy (for which I am grateful)...but the flesh right under my eye is really swollen. It's so strange...I'm wondering if it is allergy related. I have avoided putting on eye makeup or wearing contact lenses the last few days and I hope it goes away soon. 

Here's a few photos to finish up. First, we tried a new recipe this week and it was quite good--Creamy Shrimp Alfredo. In spite of the fact that it has pasta, it is fairly low in carbs. It was also really quick and easy to make, so that's a winner as far as I am concerned!

This other photo is a blue jay that visited our neighbor's deck last week. We had a nice view from our kitchen window:

That's it for this week.

Weekly Review April 23 '21

Life is definitely getting busier! It's mostly good, though. 

Last Friday I took Seth to the doctor for a medicine check up. The doctor decided to change his medication slightly...he's been on a quick release version for a couple of years but we are going to go back to a slower release version and see how that goes. (That means it stays in his system longer.) The biggest concern is that it may interfere with his ability to sleep at night, so we'll see how that goes. I decided I would rather try it now than next fall when he's in high school and needs to get up really early! It would be nice to have more "coverage time", but not if he doesn't get enough sleep. So we'll try it and see what happens. They are also slightly concerned about his weight because he's only gained a pound but grown a lot (he's 5' 5" now), so he's kind of "falling off the charts", weight-wise. (I wish I had that problem!) 

While we were at the doctor, I almost got my first Covid shot because the doctor had someone cancel their appointment to get one earlier that day so he thought they might have an extra dose. But then when he checked, someone else had already got it. I was disappointed, but then on Thursday I got an email from the county health department saying they had appointments available (I registered with them months ago) so I am scheduled for my first dose tomorrow. I'm getting the Moderna vaccine. Hopefully I won't be one of those people who feels terrible afterwards! But even if I am, I'm just glad I'm finally getting this done and will be fully vaccinated in about 6 weeks. 

Seth's school had a plumbing problem crop up on Friday afternoon and they ended up sending all the kids home early. Seth wasn't at school in person that day, of course, but since they sent all the teachers home too he didn't have his PE class that afternoon. The plumbing problem did not get resolved until Tuesday afternoon, so he had all virtual school this week. That messed up my volunteering plans but otherwise wasn't too much of an inconvenience. I had planned to meet my friend Rebekah at a park on Monday morning to visit but Frank was able to work from home that day so I was still able to visit with her. 

Back to the weekend...on Saturday Frank wanted to make some potstickers but he needed to buy a few things for that. I told him to buy the things I needed for empanadas so that I could make those, as long as he was going to the store. Frank made potstickers and I made empanadas, and they were both really good! 

Unfortunately, a few hours after making the potstickers Frank got sick...he had an upset stomach, headache, and chills. He felt pretty rotten the rest of the day on Saturday and all of Sunday too but he felt better on Monday. Neither Seth nor I caught whatever he had, thankfully! Seth and I went to church on Sunday but Frank did not. Seth and I both had class presidency meetings after church. 

On Monday afternoon I had a YW presidency meeting which once again we did online and once again it was long! The trouble is, we all like each other too much so we enjoy talking to each other. Plus we still have a lot of things to figure out. But I think eventually our meetings will be shorter, and we probably won't need to meet every week either. This time we had to talk a lot about Girls' Camp and we were able to decide on dates. (This year each ward is doing their own camp, and it's a day camp, not an overnight camp.) Our ward is actually combining with the Spanish branch for camp so the YW president of the branch came to part of our meeting to talk over a few things with us. We had talked briefly before she joined us and had decided we would prefer to do 3 days and had also picked our preferred dates. Then when she talked to us, we found out that they had picked the same week as us as their top choice and they also wanted to do 3 days. So that was great, that we were already on the same page. We chose the week right after school gets out in June, though, so we don't have a ton of time to plan. The other thing that was great about our meeting is that we had a decision that we had all been praying about since our last meeting and it turns out we all got the same answer to that prayer. I'm sure it's not always going to be so easy! 😊 We are getting a secretary on Sunday so it will be nice to have a full presidency. 

For FHE on Monday evening we went through our 72 hour kits and took out things we don't want in there (expired food; clothes Seth has grown out of). We got out one of our MREs and let Seth taste it and he thought it was pretty good. I want to spend some of our tax return on getting some food storage items. 

Seth and I both had virtual youth activities on Tuesday evening. For Seth's activity, they shared Lego creations that they had made. For my class activity we were supposed to do a home-based service scavenger hunt but only two girls were able to come and we just ended up talking the whole time. It was a lot of fun, though! We were all laughing so hard. It felt good to have the chance to get to know a couple of the girls better. 

I had my echocardiogram on Wednesday afternoon, which went fine. The results for my stress test came back last Friday and they were normal, so that is good news. I have a follow up with the cardiologist in May to discuss all the test results, but I doubt they picked anything up. We'll see what he says. Meanwhile, I just have to say after watching my heart beat for about 30 minutes (during the echo) that the heart is a wonderful feat of engineering! So amazing that it can keep beating constantly for decades!! 

Frank had an overnight cabling job on Wednesday night but he ended up not being gone very long because they determined that they weren't going to be able to do it. It was nice that he was home before 1:00 am instead of being gone all night. I didn't really do anything out of the ordinary yesterday except last night I watched a movie called The Zookeeper's Wife. I read the book years ago so I was interested to see the movie. It made me cry at a few places, but it was mostly good. I also watched the first two episodes of The Chosen this week (I think maybe that was on Wednesday). I've been hearing a lot about it and kept meaning to start watching it. I did enjoy the first two episodes and I'm looking forward to watching the rest. 

I did a little bit of work for VITA this week from home, but not much. Mostly I just sorted through one taxpayer's mounds of medical bills to figure out how much of a deduction he could take. It was quite the piece of detective work! Hopefully next week will be better. I'm planning to go in on both Monday and Tuesday. There is so much work to finish and we are running out of time. 

I'm still reading The Wheel on the School and absolutely none of it sounds even remotely familiar, so I'm starting to wonder if I ever did read it when I was a child. I think I did, but it's kind of apalling how much I've forgotten. 

Today is our 29th anniversary so we are planning to celebrate tonight (if Seth will just get his school work done!). Frank took the day off work but he has been doing a lot of work for his business. I guess I will fill you in on how we celebrated when I write next week.

It's been cooler overall this week and we had a few nights with below freezing temperatures so we gave in and turned our heater back on. Looks like we're going to get up into the 80s next week though so we'll probably be turning it back off pretty soon. We've had more rain and it's mostly been cloudy but today is sunny and nice. Whenever I go anywhere, I really enjoy all the beautiful blooming trees everywhere (and thankfully my allergies haven't been bad either). I love spring! 

That brings you up to date on everything we've been doing (or everything I can remember, anyway). 

Weekly Review April 16 '21

I feel like my life got a lot busier this week. It's a combination of my new church calling, appointments, and the fact that the world is starting to pick back up a bit. Here's the highlights for this week:

On Saturday Seth got to hang out with one of his friends from school for a couple of hours. We met his friend and his friend's mom at a park so that they could get together for a while. This is the first time he's seen this friend in person for a year! Seth will being seeing his friend more often now though because his friend started attending in-person school this week and they are in the same cohort so they go to school on the same days. I also finished our tax returns and filed them. Frank found a recipe for some low carb noodles and he decided to try it. They actually turned out really well, and they taste good:

 They are made from eggs, cream cheese, and a little bit of flour (not regular white flour; some other kind). We had meatballs for dinner that night and I had planned to make a little bit of spaghetti to go with them, but we had the egg noodles instead and that worked out great.

On Sunday Seth gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. His topic was Kindness. He did really well...he doesn't seem to get nervous at all and he is really good at speaking clearly and looking at the audience. Honestly, he looked like he was enjoying himself!! Many people told him afterwards what a good job he did and I have had others in the ward comment on it to me as well. Maybe he has a public speaking career ahead of him. I got set apart for my new calling right after Sacrament meeting. The blessing I got was really amazing; I wish I could remember it better. I mostly remember thinking how well it fit who I am and the kind of things I want to accomplish in this calling. Everybody laughed when the counselor asked me if I had a middle name, and I said "Yes, my middle name is Annette, actually." After we got home from church, Seth had a presidency meeting. Frank had to work overnight that night. When he left, it had started to rain and we got a pretty decent thunderstorm for a little while. The sky looked pretty:

Rain has actually been the theme of this week. It was either raining or cloudy almost the entire week. We did get a little bit of sunshine on Monday, a little bit on Tuesday afternoon, and a little bit more this morning, but that's about it. (It's already cloudy again.)

Frank didn't get home until nearly 6:00 am Monday morning but some kind of emergency came up so he ended up working most of the day on Monday as well. I'm never happy when that happens, especially when he has to work overnight again, which he did have to do on Tuesday night. I feel like he's been catching up on sleep ever since. Seth didn't have school on Monday (again!) because Friday was the end of the 3rd term so Monday was a teacher work day. I was busy because I had a presidency meeting for YW that morning. Originally we were going to meet in person but we ended up having to change it to a Zoom meeting. I'm glad that happened, though, because it was a long meeting (our first meeting; we had a lot to discuss of course!) and I don't like leaving Seth alone for hours on end. (Even though he probably doesn't care at all.) One of the main things we needed to discuss was who to call as advisors...both the other new counselor and I were advisors for one of the classes and the other class didn't have an advisor. When the president asked if we had any impressions about who to call, the other counselor said "I made a list". She had five names on her list, and four of them were people that I had felt like we should call too! And then the president said she had also thought of three of those four people! So that was a pretty easy decision. I really love it when that happens! I guess I forgot to mention...I didn't know who the other counselor was going to be until she was announced in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. She is one of my really good friends, so I am really happy about that. I get to work with two people that I really love and enjoy being around. After my meeting, I spent the rest of Monday getting chores done. I told Seth he should mow the lawn, but he put it off and then it started raining so it didn't happen on Monday. Instead, he had to do it right after school on Tuesday--luckily we had a brief hour or two of sunshine that afternoon. On Monday after Frank got home from work, we had dinner and family night and then he took a nap for a few hours before he had to leave for work again. He got home a lot earlier that time...I think around 2:45 am which is good since he had to go into work around 10:00. 

I got Seth to school on Tuesday and then did my usual chores and my shift at VITA. I talked to Amy some more after I got home since she had some more tax things she wanted to discuss. That evening Seth had an in-person YM activity. We were supposed to be meeting in person for YW too (as well as have a virtual activity for those who can't meet in person) but we found out on Sunday that nothing had been planned yet (none of us had been in charge of planning this particular activity) so we just had to do something quick, last minute. Plus the new YW president couldn't be there that night because it was her daughter's birthday and with only 2 leaders available (me and the other counselor), we couldn't have both an in-person and a virtual group. (We have to have two adults at each activity.) So anyway, we decided to have our own General Conference trivia activity and to do it virtually. We didn't have a lot of girls come, but I think those who came had fun. It went really well. For Seth's activity, they did ice cream sculptures. He says he made the Hill Cumorah.

On Wednesday I ended up spending a lot of the morning texting with the rest of the YW presidency. It was practically another meeting! I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon...finally I got my teeth cleaned after over a year! My hygienist is in our ward and I'm one of her ministering sisters, so I was happy for the chance to talk to her. (She rarely comes to church.) Plus, her daughter is in my YW class too so I got an update on both her and her daughter. It was really great! On Wednesday evening there was a virtual RS activity. A sister in my ward who is originally from Chile taught us how to make empanadas. I forgot to buy the ingredients so I didn't make any, but I watched so that I will know how to make them. Then at the end of the activity she encouraged anyone who wanted to come by and get some of the empanadas she had made. She doesn't live very far from us, so I went to her house and got some empanadas. They were really yummy!! Even picky eater Seth liked them. Frank had to do a short job at a restaurant that evening...he left around 8:30 but he got home by 11:00. 

Yesterday I had all the usual work to do, plus in the evening I had an online training meeting for YW. It was a training for our whole region, broadcast from SLC and the two main speakers were Sister Cordon and Elder...somebody!! I can't remember his name now! Ballard (not the apostle) or Bateman or something like that. Anyway, the meeting was really good and I have a lot of things to think about now. But it did last 2 hours, so that took up my evening. Yesterday I called a friend who is recovering from surgery as well and I also got to talk to Mom for a while. 

That's been my busy week. I haven't had much free time but when I do I've mostly just been reading. I don't have a book to read for book chat right now (already finished it) so I've been re-reading some Newbery winners that I haven't read since I was a child. I read The White Stag, King of the Wind, Caddie Woodlawn, and now I am reading The Wheel on the School. (They were all fairly short...quick, easy reads.) I liked all of them when I was a child and I still thought they were pretty good (The White Stag is a little weird.) I actually can't remember much at all about The Wheel on the School, and it seems like it didn't engage me much when I read it as a child but so far I am really enjoying it this time and wondering why I wasn't more interested in it when I was young.  

I noticed another change in Seth this week. I kept thinking his hair looked a little different and then on Thursday I realized that it's getting a little bit wavy. The texture of his hair just seems a bit different and it's not as straight as it was before. Tanner and Jared both got wavier hair as teenagers too so I guess Seth is going to follow in their footsteps. Poor Scott is the only one who got my straight hair (although I think his hair looks nice.) Here is Seth's hair:

 I'm wondering what else is going to change practically overnight this coming week! 😉 First his voice, now his hair!

This morning when I went out to get the mail, it was sunny (for the first time in days) but clouds were starting to roll in on one half of the sky. Everything looked so pretty; I had to take some photos so I will finish up with those.

Weekly Review April 9 '21

 I feel like this week went by pretty fast, I guess because we were mostly back into the regular routine. 

The weekend was wonderful, of course, with General Conference and Easter.

It didn't turn out to be all that difficult to avoid eating chocolate. We had plenty of other yummy things to eat (snacks for conference like chips & salsa) plus a yummy Easter dinner of ham, potato salad, asparagus, fruit salad, and rolls with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I ate a handful of jelly beans, but that was it. (I can't say I did as well the rest of the week though! 😆) I had signed up to feed the missionaries on Easter so we took them all of that stuff plus a small Easter basket for each of them. We dropped their dinner off shortly before the final session of Conference on Sunday (which starts at 4:00 pm for us). They seemed to appreciate it! I didn't take many notes during Conference, just tried to listen carefully and enjoy it. Now that we have access to the talks, I am reading them one at a time and taking careful notes. We're so blessed that we can re-watch or re-read these talks over and over again! 

On that note, I decided this week to go back and read Conference talks from the past. I started 'way back at the beginning of the talks that are available in the gospel library app, which starts in April 1971. I was only 2 years old then (turning 3 in about 3 months). I've read three talks so far and the chief concern among the brethren at that time seems to be how wicked the world was getting. I couldn't help thinking "Wow, they have no idea! They thought it was wicked then!" On a happy note, though, think how much the work of the Lord has moved forward in the 50 years since then. There weren't even 20 operating temples in the world at that point. Would they have been able to foresee that we would have 20 new temples announced at once?! (My only regret is that none of the 20 new temples announced is anywhere near us.)

Monday morning I had my stress test as planned. It went fine. First they injected me with the radioactive material and then I had to wait for an hour for that to get in my system. They had me sit in the waiting room and drink half a bottle of water while I waited. Then they took images of my heart at rest for about 15 minutes. I had to lie still in a chair with my arms over my head while the machine took photos. It was fine except that my arms started to "go to sleep"! When that was done they took me to another room and injected me with another medicine that simulated exercise and opened up all my arteries. They had me attached to an EKG and a nurse monitored my blood pressure and did about 3 EKGs while that medicine was in my system. The medicine caused my heart rate to jump pretty high and I felt slightly out of breath, as if I were running. It was kind of a weird sensation since I was just sitting there, not running. That part lasted only about 5 or 6 minutes; then they injected another medicine to reverse the effects of the previous one. After that I went back out to the waiting room for a while where they had me drink the other half of my bottle of water and I was also supposed to eat a light snack (I was fasting up to this point) so I brought some crackers with me. After waiting another hour, they took me back and took a second set of images of my heart at rest for another 15 minutes. They also removed the IV catheter in my arm at that point. Then I got to go home. The whole thing took about 3 1/2 hours. They told me I would be "radioactive" for a couple of days so I should avoid sitting next to pregnant women or holding newborn babies. (Now I understand why they used to have me sit back by the receptionist desk instead of in the waiting room when I visited the cardiologist during my pregnancy with Seth.) Besides that, they said if I went to an airport, I would set off the metal detector even if I didn't have any metal on me. They gave me a paper to take with me in case I needed to do that, explaining why I was setting off the metal detector, but fortunately I didn't need to make any emergency plane trips this week! I don't have the results of the test yet so I have no idea what they saw. I will find out later, when I meet with the doctor again.

Even though that test took most of the morning, I still managed to get all my regular Monday chores done, including a trip to the grocery store, and I also did a bunch of weeding in the front yard. Seth mowed the front lawn, which had become quite long in the last week, and then Frank and I went to the store and bought a bunch of mulch and we spread that out all over the flower bed. I'm still not sure how we managed to get all that done! We decided that the yard work counted as our family night activity and we got donuts for treat (which turned out to be more challenging than anticipated...who knew all of the Dunkin Donut locations in Frederick close at 7:00 pm? Seth did not have school on Monday, by the way...it was his last day of spring break.

Tuesday morning I got Seth to school as usual and was going about my morning trying to get all my chores done before I needed to leave for my afternoon VITA shift. Frank called me from work around 9:30 to make sure I was all right because he had just heard there was an active shooter at a place near our house. I looked it up and discovered that there had indeed been a shooting nearby, with 2 people injured but the shooter was "down". Later on I read more and found out that a Navy sailor had gone to a warehouse location which is just across the river from our neighborhood where he shot two other Navy sailors. Then he got in his car and drove a few miles to Ft. Detrick, where he was stopped and when he brandished his weapon the military police on the base shot and killed him. One of the victims fled across the street to a nearby business to get help. The two victims were flown to a shock trauma hospital in Baltimore. One of them was released that evening but the other one remains in critical condition. The shooting happened around 8:20 am, which was about 15 minutes before I left the house to take Seth to school. Considering how close the shooting happened to us (about a mile away), I am surprised that I didn't hear any sirens or helicopters. We did see two police cars with lights flashing heading in that direction when we were on the way to the school, but that's it. I'm just glad no one else was hurt. 

On this map, the blue pointer just to the left of the river is showing where our house is. The black pointer on the other side of the river which is almost parallel to our house pointer (a little bit north) is marking the business (Nicolock of MD) where one of the victims fled. The shooting occurred just across the main road, Monocacy Boulevard, from the Nicolock location. 

I did my VITA shift as usual on Tuesday afternoon. I also did some reviewing of returns yesterday afternoon from home and today I completed an amended return from home. 

Tuesday evening Seth and I both had virtual youth activities. Seth's group played "General Conference Trivia" and my group played a game which was based on a game played by the cast of Studio C. We each had an object to describe but we could choose to describe that object or to describe a different object. Then everyone else guessed whether or not we were telling the truth. I told the girls "You can tell your parents that for our YW activity we practiced how to lie". 😂 Actually, all the girls and one leader told the truth. One of the other leaders and I didn't. What does that say about us?? Normally, I would choose to tell the truth but I was one of the last ones to take a turn and everyone else had told the truth so I decided to be different!  I did actually guess what everyone else was doing correctly, though! 

I have not just been doing taxes for VITA this week. Yesterday I completed our Personal Property Tax return for the business and I also finished entering the info for our personal tax return. However, there is something wrong with that return...for some reason, Turbo Tax thinks we own a farm! I need to figure out what is going on with that and fix it before I can file our return. 

One of my friends gave me an instapot recipe for beef and broccoli so we tried it out on Wednesday. It turned out great...looks and tastes just like the kind we get from our favorite Chinese restaurant. I am glad to be finding ways to use the instapot.

Yesterday I got a text from my bishop asking if I had time to talk that evening. Yikes! It turns out that the current YW president is getting released. One of her counselors is going to be the new YW president (the counselor I have been working with) and she has asked for me to be her new 1st Counselor. So I guess that's what I'm going to do. I love working with her and I will still be working with the same class of girls, so it should be great. I will just have more work to do--oh well!! I do really love working in YW so I am glad that isn't changing. 

After our cold days at the end of last week, the weather has warmed back up quite a bit. As a matter of fact, it got warm enough that we turned the A/C back on a few days ago. I convinced Frank to leave the temperature a little higher so that it won't get quite so cold in here...at least for now. We'll probably want it cooler in the summer but for now we just needed the house cooled down a little so it won't be so hot at night. Today it is raining again and a bit cooler so the A/C has not come on at all. I didn't sleep very well this week for some reason and neither has Frank. I had a lot of nights where I woke up in the night and stayed awake for a couple of hours. Hopefully I will get out of this phase soon. I slept better last night, but for some reason I didn't wake up until 8:24 this morning!! Seth had school starting at 9:00. Thank goodness it was virtual, since he didn't have time to shower. 

I've probably forgotten something, but that's all I can think of for this week. I'll finish with two photos of the backyard...one on a sunny day and one this morning when it was raining. I love having this view outside my windows!

Weekly Review April 2 '21

Today has been one of those days where nothing went as I planned, but I am finally getting around to writing this post, now that it's almost time to make dinner. Some days are like that.

Last Friday evening, I needed to go to the post office to mail some cards with gift cards in them so Frank and Seth came with me and afterwards we went to Rita's to get gelati. It was a nice day but the sun was going down so we got a little chilly waiting in line wearing short sleeves and no jackets. I decided to get a cherry lime flavored ice with vanilla custard but while we were waiting they removed the cherry lime flavor from their menu board. I was bummed but then they replaced that flavor with Georgia peach, and that sounded good to me, so I decided to try that instead. It was super yummy!!

On Saturday I got my hair done. I don't remember what else I did but I think I did a lot of little things that needed to be done and I got a lot accomplished. Frank had to go to Cumberland to fix something...he wasn't very happy about that...but he also had to go to Hagerstown to get his vaccine, which is in the same direction (just a lot closer than Cumberland) so he did it all in one trip. It turns out he got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, so he doesn't have to go back because it's just one dose.

Frank felt fine the rest of the day on Saturday and he felt fine Sunday morning when he woke up, other than his arm was pretty sore. But by the time we got through our online Sunday morning meetings he was starting to have chills and didn't feel well at all. He decided to stay home from Sacrament Meeting and go to bed, but Seth and I went. Frank was really miserable for the rest of the day on Sunday and on Monday too. He did do some work from home on Monday, though. Thankfully, when he woke up on Tuesday morning he felt fine and he has been fine since. So that wasn't too bad, I guess. 

Meanwhile, this week is spring break for Seth so he's been home all week. I was lazy and had a late start on Monday but the rest of the week I have had places to go so I've been up pretty early. On Tuesday I had an appointment to get a holter monitor placed and on Wednesday morning I had to return it by 7:00 am. Frank actually took it back for me, but I had to be awake by 6:30 to remove it. I was planning to take it back too but Frank said he could do it on his way to work so he did that and I was able to exercise instead. On Thursday morning I went to VITA to do volunteer work for about 4 hours and this morning I had to get some lab work done. (More on that in a minute.) 

The rest of the week was pretty average...I did all the usual chores. I had a ministering interview by phone with the RS president on Monday afternoon. It was interesting because I have been feeling worried about one of the sisters lately and when I told the RS president that, she said "Well, there's a reason for that" and told me some of the things going on in that sister's life which are pretty difficult. So it's interesting that I was feeling that way...obviously the spirit was nudging me. And even though I didn't do anything specific to contact her, I had started praying for her every day, so hopefully my prayers were helping her a little. 

I worked at VITA on Tuesday afternoon as usual but since I didn't have to pick up Seth from school and I also didn't have a YW activity to worry about later in the evening, I was able to stay longer and I got a lot more accomplished. And I actually enjoyed it! I don't know why I enjoy doing income taxes...especially for other people...but I really do. I was planning to do some reviewing from home today but as I said...today didn't go as I planned.

Seth and Frank got haircuts last night and they both look great!! Frank convinced Seth to let the stylist use clippers on him (he usually won't let clippers anywhere near his head) so his hair is shorter than usual and it looks so much better that way. 

The one "fun" thing we did this week is we had promised Seth we would take him out to eat somewhere...his choice. But then he chose CiCi's Pizza, which is gross but we promised so we went there anyway. It wasn't very good, just as I expected, but Seth loved it so he was happy at least.

Last night Frank helped me get Turbo Tax loaded onto my "new" laptop so I was able to work on our taxes some more. I'm actually almost done...just have to put in the expenses for the business. I was very happy to discover that we are getting a refund this year. As a matter of fact, we are getting quite a large one. We paid a ton of estimated taxes and we're getting most of that back. The last few years I felt like we were paying way more estimated taxes than we needed to pay and then I was disappointed when we didn't get much back. This year I finally feel we are getting back what we should. Mostly that is because the business didn't bring in very much last year. I knew Frank was doing less work for the business than usual, but I was surprised how much less it came out to be. Some of that was undoubtedly the result of the pandemic, but I also have noticed that the business seems to ebb and flow according to our needs. Frank was incredibly busy with his regular job last year so the fact that he didn't have to do as much for the business was a real blessing. On the other hand, in 2018 when he didn't have a job for a lot of the year, the business was super busy. I don't think either of those situations was coincidental at all!! I am very grateful.

So today, as I mentioned, I had to get some lab work done. As part of the stress test on Monday they have to inject me with some radioactive stuff and because I'm under 60 years old they require me to get a pregnancy test done before I can have the stress test. They gave me a lab order and told me to get the test done three days before the stress test. So this morning I went to the lab with the order in hand. When I was taken back, the lab technician looked at my order and said "well, this is going to be a problem". It turns out that whoever did the lab order forgot to put on there what the test was for. She said "there's no test ordered on this sheet." I told her I knew what it was for but she couldn't do it without the lab order. The cardiologist's office was just across the street so I decided to go there. They actually have 2 offices across the street. I went to the first one and the door was locked. So I went to the second one but that door was locked too. I went back to my car and called the office. They are closed today, for Good Friday. So now what do I do??? I know I can't have the stress test done if I don't get the pregnancy test and I'm supposed to be there 8:00 am on Monday morning for that. There was no way to leave a message so I decided I'd better call the doctor on call. After I explained the situation, he said he would call the lab. I went back to the lab and explained that the doctor would be calling. The technician (a different one) said "no one here answers our phone. He'll have to fax the order." So I ended up calling the doctor back and he had actually sent the order electronically and they were able to look it up. So in the end it all worked out, but that took a LOT more time than I had planned. At least the lab technician was really helpful and nice to me, which I appreciated a lot. And the doctor was nice too. The lab tech put a smiley face on my "bandaid":

One other thing I realized today...I can't have anything with caffeine in it for 24 hours before the stress test. I don't normally have anything with caffeine anyway except for chocolate occasionally. Going without chocolate for 24 hours isn't a big deal but today it occurred to me that scheduling the test for Monday was really bad timing because the day before happens to be Easter! No chocolate Easter candy for me, I guess. It will have to wait until later.

After I got home from the lab, I ended up talking to Amy for quite a while (which I enjoyed)...mostly we were talking about her taxes because she had some questions about those. We talked for a few hours earlier this week too, about the same thing. (But we always end up talking about other things too, of course!) Anyway, because of all of that I didn't start working on updating the budget until mid afternoon. So here it is dinner time, and I never had a chance to log on to help with VITA stuff, but that's just the way the day went. 

The last few weeks I have been noticing that Seth's voice is starting to change. I don't think he even realizes it, but his voice sounds different...getting lower. Yesterday I called him while I was at VITA and when he first answered the phone I wasn't sure if it was him or Frank! So weird!! I guess he has to grow up sometime. And on that note...I feel like he's been better about helping lately. If we ask him to do something he does it right away and often without complaining. That is a nice change! Also, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that Seth was late for school one day because he forgot his laptop and I didn't think of it until we were halfway to the school. Seth's first reaction when he realized he forgot was to say "You shouldn't have rushed me!" (I had asked him to go start the car.) This is typical of Seth...whatever goes wrong, he usually blames me for it. I looked at him and said "Seth, it is your responsibility to make sure you take everything you need to school, not mine. I just remind you about things to help you out." Usually this kind of conversation leads to a big argument, but he just looked at me and said "You're right, Mom. I should have remembered." This is HUGE!!! I almost couldn't believe it! He is starting to grow up for sure!!

We've had quite a bit of rain this week and the temperatures have been cooler. The early part of this week was still warmish, but yesterday and today have been cold, with highs in the 40s and lots of wind. Of course! It always gets cold for spring break, I've noticed. It was nice on Saturday and I went for a walk and took a lot of pictures, so I will finish with those. Two weeks ago I looked at the weather for the week coming up (last week) and I thought "I bet by the end of next week, some of the trees will be blooming"...and I was right! I suppose my allergies will really start to kick in soon but they haven't yet and in the meantime I am enjoying the beauty of the world. (It still LOOKS like spring, even though it doesn't feel like it today!) Anyway, here are the photos:

It doesn't show up in the picture, but one of our neighbors hung a bunch of plastic Easter eggs in one of the little trees by the river. 

Someone else must have planted some bulbs out by the river at one point too because there were patches of daffodils all over.

These are probably weeds...just little wildflowers growing in the grass...but I thought they were pretty anyway!

Another river shot. In a few more weeks when all the trees have leaves, we will barely be able to see the river!

Buds on a tree

Two more river shots...both taken just a few steps off the walking path. We really love our river!

And finally...a tree in bloom. Beautiful!