Weekly Review November 5 '21

 Last Saturday our ward had a Trunk or Treat / Halloween Carnival; the YM / YW were in charge so it was pretty busy for me. We got there early to set up our carnival games (and Seth was helping to set up the haunted house). During the carnival itself, I helped run the "cupcake walk". All the kids seemed to have a good time and it was fun to do that for them. The youth all did a great job helping. 

My girls!:

Our games:

Guess how many candy corn in the jar

Fish pond ("Sink or Swim")

Knock over the cans ("Cans for Candy")

Graveyard (cupcake) Walk

Here is the floor for the Graveyard Walk:

(Note to self: next time, tape down the cards to the floor! Every toddler wanted to pick them all up!)

The other YW class set up an obstacle course, among other games. It looked really cool! I was so impressed with what a great job they did (can't really tell from the photos):

They also did this game:

Signs for the obstacle course:

The "guess how many" game was very popular!

The other YW class also set up this duck pond game:

Lots of kids waiting to go through the Haunted House (and our bishop in a wig):

For the cupcake walk, we asked for 3 people to volunteer to make a batch of cupcakes. The ones who volunteered all made these amazing masterpieces!:

Meanwhile, Frank spent the day in NC helping / visiting with his parents. He had a busy day, too.

When we got home from the carnival, I stayed up pretty late watching the first half of the BYU / Virginia football game. I just couldn't stay awake past halftime. When I woke up Sunday morning I checked the score and I was thrilled to discover BYU won the game by quite a bit, since BYU was actually behind at the end of the first half. I probably saw the worst part of the game for them which is too bad but I enjoyed watching all the highlights. 

On Sunday we had our usual church meetings. Since it was a 5th Sunday, all the youth met together and I helped with the lesson...just a short part of it. Frank left NC for the drive home fairly early on Sunday morning so he arrived home around 2:00, while we were at church. It's nice to have him home again! That evening was Halloween and we debated a bit about whether or not we would hand out candy (we had plenty of leftovers from the Trunk or Treat). We finally decided to turn on our porch light and to answer the door if anyone came, but we didn't open the door or sit outside like we usually do. We don't get very many trick or treaters in our neighborhood anymore anyway. Last year, with all the Covid stuff, we only had 2 or 3 kids come by. This year was better, as I expected, but we still only had about 25 trick or treaters come. Seth enjoyed handing out candy to the kids who came. 

When Frank came back from NC, he brought a quilt that his mom made for us. She made it a few years ago but it wasn't big enough for our bed so she took it back and added more to it so now it is big enough. 

She used lots of different scraps to make this quilt and I love how colorful it is!! Many of the fabric scraps remind me of clothes that I wore when I was a little girl. It was a great time to get an extra quilt to add to the bed since it got colder this week.

The rest of this week has honestly not been all that eventful. Frank has been pretty busy with work, Seth with school, and me with YW stuff and household chores, but we haven't done much out of the ordinary besides taking Seth shopping last night to get some clothes. He is growing like a weed and needs lots of new things already. Last night we were able to find him some new Sunday shoes and a white dress shirt. We still need to get him a new coat, winter boots & gloves, some long sleeve tshirts (he's basically grown out of all his long sleeve shirts since last winter), and a couple more pairs of jeans. 

For my YW class activity this week we learned how to knit. We were going to learn how to crochet too, but we ran out of time. The YW president knows how to knit and we both know how to crochet. (Actually, I used to know how to knit, but it's been so long that I've forgotten everything I ever knew). The girls were good sports and really tried hard to learn...and did pretty well for their first attempts!

I was supposed to have a presidency meeting yesterday but we ended up having to postpone it until next week. However, I had some things I've been wanting to discuss with the president, so I we talked on the phone for about 45 minutes. It was a good productive discussion though!

I did quite a bit of reading this week. I finished the book for book chat (The Midnight Library)...it was really good; had a good message. Then I started reading another Newbery winner called Hello, Universe, and I finished that book last night. It was a really good book too.

Mostly I feel like I got caught in a time warp this week because I don't feel like I got a lot done besides the basic chores and I feel like I should be getting a lot more accomplished. The days just whiz by and I don't know where they go!

As I mentioned above, the weather got a lot colder here the last couple of days. I turned the heat back on on Sunday and we've had freeze warnings the last 3 nights. It's getting into the low 50s during the days and down below freezing at nights. It has been mostly sunny so it looks like it's going to feel nice until I go outside and realize how cold it is! It's not really too bad though and next week is going to be a bit warmer again. All things considered, it's pretty nice weather considering it's November. It's just harder to get out of my warm bed in the morning when I know it's going to be cold out there. The leaves are turning colors rapidly now and lots of leaves are starting to fall also. 

That is everything I can think of to tell you about us this week.

Weekly Review October 29 '21

 Where on earth is this year going? It is the end of October already!! I am starting to feel a little bit of panic about Christmas. Last year at this time I had figured out gifts for all the older kids and had made / was working on making a bunch of gifts too. This year I haven't done anything yet, and when I try to think about it, my mind goes blank. Hopefully I will come up with something soon.

Meanwhile, we have Halloween and Thanksgiving coming first. This week was quieter and less busy than last week, but we did have a few things going on. Saturday was pretty busy. In the morning I went to a stake Women's Conference. My stake does this every year (last year it was virtual). Usually we have classes and a meal. This year was a little bit different. We still had a meal, but instead of classes we did service projects to benefit several organizations in our community. I think that was a really nice idea! I ended up helping to make activity blankets for elderly people. Well, one blanket, actually. My friends Rebekah and Tammy and I made a blanket together.

(These blankets are for elderly people with dementia / alzheimers who are fidgety and all the items on the blanket are to help keep their hands busy.) The other two had to leave early for other commitments, so they helped arrange everything and sew on buttons and the other items that needed to be sewed on by hand and I sewed all the objects onto the blanket using a sewing machine after they left. I got halfway through sewing on the first item (the large ribbon down the center of the blanket) when I realized that the bobbin thread had run out right at the beginning! (It wasn't my sewing machine.) There was another color of thread on the bobbin underneath the one that ran out and there was enough of it that I couldn't poke the thread through the hole to wind more thread on the bobbin so I had to use that thread too and of course it also ran out! All the problems with the bobbin thread really slowed me down so I was literally the last person finishing a blanket...they were taking down and putting away all the tables and chairs and such as I finished sewing. But I did finish it!

We watched the BYU football game on Saturday afternoon and between that and the Women's Conference, that took up most of my day. At least BYU won their game this time, although it certainly wasn't a decisive victory so we couldn't relax until it was over.

On Sunday we had our regular meetings and the YW presidency also met with the bishopric (via Zoom) to discuss the upcoming Halloween carnival, the upcoming 5th Sunday lesson, and the youth in general. My YW class was really wired so we didn't have a very reverent lesson. It's often like that and I felt a little frustrated by the end of the class. I love the girls and I'm glad we have so much fun together, but I felt like we really missed an opportunity to feel the spirit and learn from each other. I've been pondering what to do about that but haven't had any clear ideas yet.

Monday was a pretty busy day with the regular chores plus a lot of errands. I had to sort out a problem with Seth's prescription, fill out forms for an upcoming doctor appointment, and gather up items for the Halloween carnival, among other things. 

There was no school on Tuesday (end of term; teacher work day). Seth enjoyed having the day off; I was busy with the usual things. I feel like I spend a lot of time cooking these days.

I had a doctor appointment Wednesday morning (just my annual check up). Then I ran a few errands, including shopping for some carnival items. It was a really nice day--sunny and warm--so I went on a short walk and also sat on the hill behind our house for a while in the sunshine. I took a few photos while I sat there:

It was prettier in real life than in the photos. I feel lucky to have such a beautiful area right behind my house!

That evening for YM / YW, everyone was working on preparing their activities / games for the carnival. My class counted candy corn for the "guess how many are in the jar" game, covered cans with Halloween stickers for the "knock over the cans" game (the cans are decorated with patriotic designs, so we covered them with construction paper and stickers so they'd be appropriate for Halloween), and made a backdrop for the "fish pond". One of the girls, who is really good at calligraphy, made signs for each game. We had fun talking and laughing while we worked.

Yesterday we took Seth to an open house for the CTC--Career & Technology Center--which is a program the school system has in our county. They have many different programs like culinary arts, cosmetology, welding, etc. Seth is interested in doing one of their computer technician programs. He has to sign up to "shadow" the program he is interested in attending, which means he would spend half of a school day at the CTC. It would give him a chance to see what it's like and it would give the teachers in charge of the program a chance to meet him and see if he is a good fit. Once he has done the shadow, he has to apply to get into the program if he is interested. I'm not sure how competitive it is, I just know it's not guarnteed that you'll get in just because you're interested. Students with good grades and good attendance have a better chance, though, and Seth is great in both of those areas at least. We'll see how it goes. He will sign up to shadow and we will go from there. If he is accepted, he will start the program next year. It is a one, two, or three year course, depending on what he decides to do. He would spend half the day at the CTC and the other half at his regular high school taking his other classes. The thing I really like about the program is that if he is successful, he can pass certification tests that will qualify him for some good IT jobs right out of high school. Then if he gets a degree on top of that, he can qualify for even better jobs. This seems like a good option for Seth in case his ADHD makes college attendance difficult for him. He is still planning to go to college, of course, but this is a good back up plan. It will also allow him to get a good job to help pay his way through college. All of this depends, of course, on him deciding he wants to do it and getting accepted into the program and then working hard in the program. Anyway, it seemed worth it to go to the open house to find out a little more. We were surprised that there were actually a TON of people there...so many that it caused traffic and parking problems and it took a long time to get there. (The open house was for all of the programs...about 27 different ones...not just for the computer technician programs.) 

Frank has had a very busy week with work. He has been working a lot on projects for a new restaurant which will be opening in early December. This week they did both the digital menu and the POS install. Since it's a new store that hasn't opened yet, they were able to do those things during the day instead of at night, so that was nice at least. It just meant he put in some long days and I didn't see him at lunch time very much. He decided yesterday that he needed to go down to NC to help his parents with some things (he's been thinking about that for a few weeks) so he left early this morning and he arrived safely this afternoon. He should be back on Sunday.

I woke up at 2:30 am this morning and never went back to sleep, but I did take a 30 minute nap after I got Seth to school, which seemed to help. Seth's high school has homecoming this weekend and they had a pep rally today which he seemed to really enjoy. It rained last night and it has been raining all day. Most of the time it hasn't been raining too hard but of course it was absolutely pouring when school got out this afternoon so I picked him up. Since getting home a few hours ago, he has had one of his headaches and he threw up too but now he seems to be feeling better. I gave him some tylenol, but apparently we didn't catch it soon enough. When I had him at the doctor last week I remembered (finally!) to mention that this has been happening to him off and on for several years. The doctor thinks he is probably getting migraines, but determining the cause is tricky (as I knew it would be). 

I continued to read a lot this week. I finished listening to the Seven Brides for Seven Brothers audio book on Saturday and since then I have been listening to a book about M. Russell Ballard's life which has been really inspiring. (Just like the other biographies I've listened to lately.) I also finished reading Adam of the Road and started reading the book for book chat which is called The Midnight Library. I'm about 2/3 of the wary through the book already...it's a pretty easy read. It has a lot of swearing in it, which I don't like, but otherwise it is a good book and very interesting. 

Jared has been having more kidney stone issues this week so that hasn't been fun for him. He is still recovering from surgery too, although that is going fairly well. Please keep him in your prayers! That is everything you need to know about us (I hope). :)

Weekly Review October 22 '21

 I'm not sure if we did anything more interesting this week than we did last week (you'll have to be the judge of that) but we were definitely busier. 

Frank had to work last Friday night...it wasn't a total overnighter but he didn't get home until early Saturday morning. I mentioned last week that we enjoyed not having to get up early on Friday morning (there wasn't any Seminary or school that day) but we did have to get up early on Saturday morning instead. That's because our stake had a youth "temple trek" on Saturday and Seth was participating in that. I had to have him to the church by 6:10 to catch a ride down to the starting point, which was the Washington Monument. They had to be there by 7:30. The trek was just a one day thing and not complicated or elaborate...they didn't pull handcarts or wear pioneer clothes. They just did a trek from the Washington Monument to the Washington DC temple, which is about 10 miles. They did have them divided up in "families" with a "ma" and "pa" so they traveled as families. They had stops every couple of miles where they could refill their water bottles and get a snack; they also had devotionals, games, or other activities at each stop. They finished around 2:30 or so. They got rained on a bit near the end of the trek but mostly they had nice weather...not hot and not cold either. So they were pretty fortunate there! Seth said he "hated every minute of it" but he said that with a big grin on his face so I think he probably actually enjoyed it and when I asked him if he gained a greater appreciation for what some of his ancestors had to do he said "definitely!!" Imagine doing that every day, for months on end...

Meanwhile, Frank and I bought some bags of mulch, a chrysanthemum, a pot of pansies, and some pumpkins. We got home with barely enough time to pull up weeds and spread the mulch in our front flower bed before it started raining here. The chrysanthemum and the pot of pansies went on the front steps, along with one of the pumpkins. I forgot to take a photo (since it was starting to rain) but Frank took one today (after the pumpkin was carved).

The pumpkins were actually for a YW activity so I had 7 of them. The other 6 pumpkins had to reside on our kitchen table (unfortunely, they took up half the table!) until Wednesday when I took them to the activity. 

Originally, I was supposed to help drive kids home from the trek so I was going to have to drive down to the stake center right next to the temple to pick them up but we had a number of youth from our ward who ended up not being able to go because of injuries and a few others who decided not to go last minute, so we only had 7 youth attend from our ward. The YW president and our bishop both have 8 passenger vans, so as it turned out the YW president drove them down and our bishop picked them up. That meant I was able to watch the entire BYU football game...to bad it was not a very fun game to watch since our team didn't play that well (especially the defense) and lost the game. Maybe they'll play better tomorrow? I hope so.

On Sunday besides our usual meetings, I also had a ministering interview in the morning with the RS president and right after church our family had tithing settlement with our bishop. (Our bishop likes to get tithing settlement done early! This was the first week, though, so we were one of the first to attend tithing settlement.) There was a trek follow up testimony meeting for the youth that evening also but Seth didn't really want to go and I am getting old & lazy so I didn't make him go. 

Frank got released from his calling as ward self relicance specialist on Sunday and he was called to be a Sunday school teacher. He is teaching Seth's class now, and he actually taught the class that day. I think it will be a good calling for him...he will enjoy it and he is a good teacher so that will be good for the kids. The only downside is that we don't get to go to Sunday School together anymore. (I may attend his class with him sometimes though...there has to be two teachers so I told him whenever his co-teacher can't be there I can just be his helper.) 

Monday was busy because I had a YW presidency meeting in the afternoon (besides all the usual chores that morning) and after school Seth had a doctor appointment to follow up on his medicine since we adjusted his dose last month. While we were at the doctor's office they asked us if we wanted flu shots so I got one. (I couldn't convince Seth to get one and he never gets sick anyway so I didn't push it.) For some reason, I bled quite a bit when I got the shot and the next morning I had a huge bruise on my upper arm. It was red then but it's gotten darker as the week has progressed and looks like this now:

So strange that happened!! Other than that, my arm was only mildly sore and I didn't get any flu symptoms or anything, so I'm not complaining. 

After we got back from the doctor we ate dinner and had family night. Then I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins to take to book chat the next day. So overall, that was a very busy day.

Tuesday was also busy because I got my hair cut in the afternoon and I had book chat that evening. In between I squeezed in all the regular chores which is quite a lot on Tuesdays. Jared ended up having surgery on Monday and he tried to call me a couple of times on Tuesday but never when I was home. That's the kind of day I had. I was in charge of snacks for book chat so besides the muffins I also took some hummus and veggies. We had a good discussion, as always, and now we are going to read a book called The Midnight Library. I had to reserve the book at the library and I just got a notice about an hour ago that it is ready for me to pick up so obviously I haven't started reading it yet but I will be reading it soon.

On Wednesday morning I had a dentist appointment...just my 6 month check up and cleaning. One of the sisters in my ward is the hygenist that cleans my teeth so I always enjoy seeing her and getting caught up on how she is doing. (She doesn't come to church often, and I am one of her ministering sisters so that works out great that I get to see her at least every 6 months.) I did have a little bit of free time Wednesday afternoon so I was finally able to talk to Jared. He had surgery to get an absess drained...it's the same surgery he had in February 2020. Unfortunately, this is a problem that has a tendency to come back repeatedly. The surgery went well and he is recovering pretty well though. I think I forgot to mention in last week's letter that Jared had a kidney stone last week. So he's been to the ER twice in the last two weeks, which isn't much fun. But as I said, he is doing better now. 

My class had a fun YW activity that evening. We did "relay pumpkin carving". We each had a pumpkin and we started by cleaning them out and then we each cut out some eyes on our pumpkin. Then we passed our pumpkin to the next person and we carved noses on the pumpkin we got. Then we passed them again and carved mouths, then again and carved eyebrows. Then we passed them one more time and we each gave a name to the pumpkin we ended up with. Then we each got to take home the pumpkin we stared with...the one we had carved the eyes on. It was actually really fun and all the pumpkins turned out really well: 

(I really am not taller than everyone! I'm one of the shortest. It must be the angle the photo was taken from.)

I carved the nose on this one.

I carved the mouth on this one.

I carved the eyes on this one (and this is the one I brought home) I think it looks like an ogre!

I carved the eyebrows on this one (I think this one looks like Voldemort!)

And I named this one. The girls said it looked like a grumpy old man, so I named it "Ove" in honor of a character in a book I read once.

One of the girls brought pumpkin chocolate truffles for us to enjoy while we carved (they were delicious) and I also brought some of the leftover muffins from book chat because the book chat crew didn't eat very many. 

Meanwhile, all the boys were working on planning a haunted house for our ward's trunk or treat / Halloween carnival which we are having next week.

Yesterday another friend from my ward (Sherrie) and I took our friend Wanda shopping. She needed to get some new clothes for winter, as well as a few other items. We took her to a thrift store where she got a lot of clothes for great prices and then to a dollar store to get some hygiene items. After that we went to Roy Rogers to get some lunch. We took her back to the care center where she lives and helped her get settled & put all her stuff away and we went through her closet and organized her clothes better for her. I didn't get home until shortly before Seth got home from school and I was pretty tired but it was fun to spend the day with my two friends and felt good to be able to help Wanda a little. 

Last night Frank had to do a late night job although he was able to do it remotely so he was home, but downstairs in his office until about 1:30 in the morning. Frank is working from home today and it's been nice to have him here. We went out to lunch together because I messed up and forgot to pull the meat for our lunch out of the freezer yesterday. (Salmon, which doesn't quick thaw well at all.) 

We've been enjoying nice weather all week with chilly mornings and sunny warm days (but not too warm). Yesterday was particularly beautiful. I'm sure colder weather will set in soon so I'm really appreciating the nice weather while we have it. 

I haven't had much free time this week but when I did I have been doing a little bit of reading...still working on Adam of the Road which is quite good. I would probably be done with it if I had more time to read. I also finished listening to Elder Bednar's book about revelation...it was excellent!...and started listening to another audio book. This one is not uplifting and inspiring but just entertaining and somewhat silly. It's a modern version of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" which is why it sounded interesting to me. Not great literature, but it's definitely been entertaining.

Seth missed Seminary Tuesday morning because he didn't sleep well the night before but otherwise he is doing well and seems to be keeping up in his classes. The first term is almost over already!! 

Frank is quite tired from his late night jobs and he has had to do quite a bit of travelling about during the days to solve problems at various locations so he is keeping pretty busy.

Now you are up to date on all of us.

Weekly Review October 15 '21

 My calendar for this week has nothing on it except for YM / YW on Wednesday night. I still kept really busy though...although now I'm not sure exactly what I was so busy doing! I will try to remember..

On Saturday Frank and Seth went to see a movie...Shang-ri and the Ten Rings. While they were gone I got my regular Saturday chores done. We watched the BYU football game that afternoon...for once it wasn't super late at night! Too bad BYU lost, though. That was a sad game.

I ended up teaching the YW lesson on Sunday last minute because one of the girls was supposed to do it but then couldn't. We ended up not having much time for the lesson, though...the girls like to talk a lot. We need to work on that! 

I do the main grocery shopping on Mondays, and that always seems to take up most of the morning. After lunch I went to see my friend Wanda to give her some things she had asked me to purchase for her. Seth walks right past the nursing home where she lives on the way home from school, so I had him meet me there on his way home and I took him the rest of the way home. 

For family night activity we played Sequence and Seth won. 

On Tuesday the other YW counselor and I went to help a family in our ward who is moving. (Their daughter is in YW). We were only there for about an hour, but we were able to pack up everything in one of the kid's bedrooms in that time. 

I'm not sure exactly what the YM did for their activity on Wednesday evening. They did some races or something like that. The YW had a combined activity...we made a new bulletin board for the YW room. The younger class planned the activity and I think they did a great job. We talked about some of the women in the scriptures and the admirable qualities they have. Then we each made a "puzzle piece" with our photo on it. We passed the puzzle pieces around and we each wrote admirable qualities we feel that person has on the back of her puzzle piece. When we got our own puzzle piece back, we chose a few of the qualities to write on the front. Then we put the puzzle pieces up on our new bulletin board, along with pictures of some of the admirable women in the scriptures and some inspirational quotes from General Conference. The idea is that we each bring different qualities to our YW group, and each piece contributes to the whole. I think it turned out really nice.

Yesterday Frank and I met to have lunch together. Well actually...we have lunch together almost every day because Frank comes home for lunch and we make it and eat it together. This time, we met at a restaurant for lunch which was fun for a change. Seth's friend Jarom walked home from school with him and stayed for a couple of hours yesterday. 

On Wednesday and Thursday I took Seth to Seminary as well as picking him up because the other boy we carpool with wasn't going. Rather than drive back and forth, I just stayed there. The first morning I read scriptures and the second morning I visited with my friend Rebekah who was also there waiting. Both Frank and Seth expressed surprise when I said I was just planning to read scriptures for an hour. "Won't you run out of things to do in an hour?" Actually, no. 😅 I have a lot of different things I like to read during scripture study--chapters in the Bible and The Book of Mormon, Liahona articles, and General Conference talks, to name some of them. I am reading the current General Conference talks but recently I have also gone back to the first Conference talks available in the Gospel Library (1971) and have been reading those as well. It's pretty interesting to see how General Conference has changed since then and to read about what was on the prophets' minds back then.

Today Seth doesn't have school...not sure why...I think it is a teacher work day. He did some homework this morning but he's done now and enjoying his day off. We all enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to get up at 5:00 am this morning. Frank was planning to work from home today but he already had to go to Gaithersburg to solve a problem at one restaurant and now he is gone to Hagerstown to solve problems at two others. So much for working from home!

This week wasn't all that busy as you can see and considering that I feel like I should have accomplished more in the free time I had. I spent quite a bit of time taking some photos for a blog post I am planning to do. I also finished reading Gay-Neck, which was pretty good although a bit disjointed, and started reading another Newbery called Adam of the Road. I'm reading a couple of other non-fiction books too so often I will read a chapter or two from one of those. I did some sewing, but not very much. I finished listening to the book about Dallin H. Oaks and now I am listening to a book by Elder Bednar about revelation. It's really good. I mostly listen to the books while I am doing other household chores such as cleaning bathrooms or folding laundry. It has definitely helped make those tasks more enjoyable!! I've been doing some logic puzzles lately too and did a few of those this week. The more complicated ones can take a lot of time and brain power. I'm hoping doing this will help keep my brain more alert as I get older (because sometimes I feel like I'm totally losing my brain capacity!). 

We have had a lot of foggy mornings this week and some rain too but most days have been sunny and the temperatures have been very pleasant--warmer than usual. The leaves on the trees have just barely started to turn and the A/C still comes on a lot. It hasn't been getting cool enough at nights even to need the heater. I'm sure it will get cold soon enough though. 

Frank had a check up at the doctor last week and had bloodwork done Monday morning. He got the results a few days later and he was really happy to discover that his A1c, which is a measurement of his overall blood sugar for the last 3 months, is 5.6. This is significant because 5.7 and below is consistent with the absence of diabetes. If he keeps this up, he may be able to get off of some of the medications he has to take for diabetes. So that is really great news!! He has also been losing weight...I'm not sure how much but a pretty significant amount. All his pants are too loose and he has to wear a belt and tighten it up. This diet we've been on has been a bit of work but it is great to see results.

Now I had better get on with the rest of the things I need to do today. Tune in next week to see if we do anything more interesting. 😁

Weekly Review October 8 '21

 Last Friday night we stayed up pretty late watching the BYU / Utah State football game. (We are so glad the games tomorrow and next week are in the afternoon!) It's fun to see BYU doing so well this year, even with all the injuries.

On Saturday morning we ran some errands...we took Seth to pick up his new glasses (actually just new lenses--he kept the same frames) and then filled my car with gas and took it through the car wash. We washed my car fairly recently, but it got really dirty when we parked at the fair because the parking lot is not really a lot but rather a muddy field. Then we stopped at the store to get a few food items and got home in time for General Conference.

General Conference was, as always, fantastic but poor Frank didn't get to watch much of it. I took these photos sometime during the first session--feeling slightly amused that I am the only one who can stay awake, apparently:

(It helps to take notes...that's one of the ways I stay awake. I also usually have some sort of project to work on. During the Saturday sessions I took apart and rebuilt my Lego "changing seasons" house set...now it's the autumn house instead of the summer house.)

Being sleepy was not Frank's only problem though. He was also having some mild chest pains, which got worse later in the day. It wasn't incredibly allarming but chest pain is something you should take seriously just in case so he decided he needed to be seen. Of course, since it was the weekend he had to go to the ER instead of to the doctor. He left partway through the evening session (about 8:30 pm) and he didn't get home until 3:30 am. When he got there, they took him back immediately for an EKG and some blood work; he also got a chest x-ray. But they were really busy so after that he had to wait forever for the test results and they didn't even have any free rooms, so he was in the waiting room most of that time. Finally around 3:00 am when he asked how much longer it would be before a doctor would be able to give him his test results, they told him that a doctor hadn't been assigned to his case yet. Whatever that means! He got frustrated and decided to just come home. But on Sunday he felt worse so he went back. They did more bloodwork and he still had to wait a long time but he did finally get to see a doctor. The tests showed that there wasn't anything alarming going on with his heart so they don't know why he was having chest pains. We're glad his heart is okay, of course, but it's frustrating not to know a cause for his pain. Fortunately, the pain tapered off over the next couple of days. In the meantime, though, he missed a lot of conference. It's a blessing that we can read and watch the talks later!

Meanwhile, I did watch all of the sessions with distractions (mostly communicating with Frank to see how he was doing) and Seth stayed in the room listening almost the entire time although I'm not sure how focused he was. He spent part of the time coloring in a cool coloring book that I got, and arranging colored pencils:

Hopefully a lot of the messages sunk in!

Frank's work schedule was much calmer than usual this week, thankfully, He didn't have any overnights and he has been able to work from home quite a bit also. Seth and I also had a pretty quiet week. I don't have much at all on my calendar, but it was really nice for a change. I was able to visit my friend Wanda on Monday. She actually called me before I got a chance to call her. She is feeling better now and she wanted her bangs trimmed, which I do for her occasionally. I had a good visit with her and I'm trying to set up a time to take her shopping soon because she needs some new winter clothes.

My ministering sister came to visit me on Tuesday evening. It's been a while since she's been able to visit so it was nice to get caught up. One thing I really appreciate about her is that she listens to things I say and then sends me things afterwards that she thinks might be helpful. Like this time it came up that the DC temple is going to have a new schedule when it opens up, which I didn't know, so she sent me the schedule afterwards. She also sent me a link to a podcast she thinks I'll like. It's nice to be ministered to. 😃

On Wednesday for the YM activity, Seth went to Walkersville High School to watch one of the other teachers play in his JV football game. I asked him afterwards if Walkersville won the game and he said "Yes, the score was 40-something to 8". Sounds like a pretty decisive victory to me! The YW had class activities and my class was supposed to go on a walk and then come back to the church for hot chocolate and muffins. However, the YW president got a flu shot the day before and it made her really sick so she couldn't come. I asked several other people if they could come to fill in for her but I was striking out all over the place. I decided to ask the girls what they wanted to do...we could do something different at the church so the other class's leaders would be nearby. But as it turned out, all the girls had conflicts or a lot of homework to do so they decided it would be better to just cancel our activity for the night. That was fine except I had already made the muffins (pumpkin chocolate chip), and the recipe makes about 30 muffins! I didn't want to keep all of them because that is way too many muffins for us to eat. So I asked the girls if I could bring muffins to them after Seminary the next morning and they were happy to accept them so I was able to give away most of the muffins the next morning.

In my free time this week I've been working on a couple of projects. My ward's Relief Society decided to make a quilt. They want each sister to make a quilt block that represents herself. So that was one of my projects this week. I think it is a great idea, but I had trouble figuring out what to do to represent myself. I could think of lots of different interests I have...reading, sewing, crocheting, quilting, history & record keeping, accounting & taxes, organizing, etc!! But I wouldn't say there is one thing that defines me and how to represent any of those things or a combination of those things takes creativity that I don't have. I finally decided to go to the fabric / craft store to get some ideas. I had trouble finding things that would represent most of my interests, but when I saw some star shaped buttons I realized that doing a patriotic themed quilt block would work, since I feel really connected to America, sharing nearly the same birthday. Plus, I love summer. So this is what I finally came up with:

It sort of represents the sewing / quilting thing too since I sewed the ribbon and buttons on and I hand-stitched the border around the heart patch. So that was one project I worked on. The other project was a doll dress. I got material and patterns to make a bunch of clothes for my American Girl doll years ago (like 2014!) and I made a few but have never finished the rest. I'm in a "finish unfinished projects" mode right now so I decided to finish the doll clothes next. I had already cut out the pieces for this dress...also years ago...so that seemed like a good project to tackle next. I finished it on Wednesday evening and last night I cut out the pieces for the next project. The dress turned out cute, but I need to get a different ribbon for the sash. This ribbon is too stiff so the tails poke up instead of hanging down:

I was actually surprised to discover that the ribbon for the sash is exactly the same as one of the ribbons I used in the ribbon pillows I just made! I purchased the supplies so long ago that I had forgotten. 

I've been doing some reading this week also. I've continued to read Gay-Neck, although I haven't been focusing on it much or I'd probably be done with it by now. I finished listening to an audio book about President Nelson last week and I started a new audio book about President Oaks. They are both really good and it has been really inspiring to learn more about them and the kind of men they are. They are both incredible! Makes me want to be a better person myself. 

That's all the news from around here...or at least what I can remember. We hope you are all well, especially Frank's mom & dad who both have Covid-19. We're thankful they aren't sick enough to need to go to the hospital, but we are sorry that they are sick and hope they recover completely soon. We are also praying for baby Autumn, and for Timo & Megan. We hope Autumn will be able to come home soon. 

Weekly Review October 1 '21

Welcome to October! This year sure seems to be going by fast. I don't love that we are getting closer to winter, but I do love October. It is always such a beautiful month. 

Seth had a fun day last Saturday. He had his two friends, Jarom and Courage, over for most of the day. They are brothers (Courage is Seth's age, Jarom is a year older) and they are in our stake but a different ward. They both went to the Montessori school for middle school and now they go to the same high school as Seth, though. (Obviously, the ward boundaries and the high school boundaries don't line up at all.) They are really nice boys...super polite...and they also like a lot of the same things Seth likes. They played outside for a while and in Seth's room for a while and they also played Minecraft and other games. We fed them lunch too. They were kind of loud, but obviously had a good time all day. That evening, Seth went with them to the fair for dinner and to watch Courage compete in a RC car race. Seth came home with this huge cup:

It doesn't look all that huge in the photo, but it is a 64 oz cup. It actually had lemonade in it, not Dr Pepper (they were out of lemonade cups), although Seth does like Dr Pepper also. He seemed to have had a good time at the fair.

Frank had to work that evening for a few hours and got home quite late (maybe it was early in the morning...I can't remember now). I was still awake when he got home because I was watching the BYU football game, which thankfully BYU won even though the defense seemed to be really struggling most of the game. 

Meanwhile, while Seth was at the fair and Frank was working, I finished sewing the pillow covers I was working on last week. I am really pleased with how they turned out:

I picked the colors to match the afghan I made last year. It's nice to have one project done. I still have many unfinished projects!!

On Sunday I didn't go to Sacrament meeting because I was asked to stay with an older member of our ward who isn't able to come to church anymore. Her younger sister is her caregiver, so a couple of times a month someone goes to stay with the older sister so that her younger sister can attend Sacrament meeting. The older sister has pretty severe dementia but she still has the same sweet personality and I enjoyed seeing her again. She thanked me more than once for staying with her. She actually fell asleep in her chair and stayed asleep for a lot of the time I was there, and was no trouble at all. Another ward member arrived early to stay with her for the second hour so that I could get to the church in time for my YW class. The only inconvenience was that these sisters have a lot of cats and all the cats wanted to rub up against my legs so I arrived at church with a lot of cat hairs stuck to my black tights...oh well! My YW class had a class presidency meeting that evening via Zoom. 

Frank had to work on Sunday night too...all night...so he left church after Sacrament meeting and went home to take a nap (remember he was up late Saturday night too). After getting home from church, I barely had time to make dinner for him before he had to leave. There were a lot of problems with this particular overnight job, so Frank ended up working all day Monday too after only a few hours of sleep. That happens all too often! 

Seth had a pretty usual week with Seminary and school, except for Tuesday. He burned his finger while he was making breakfast that morning. It wasn't a serious burn, but it was the kind of burn that hurts for a long time unless you keep it in cold water. So he missed Seminary and about the first half of his first period class because he was sitting at home with his finger in a bowl of cold water. It finally stopped hurting enough that he was able to take it out of the water and go to school. It seems to be fine now. 

Frank also worked on Monday night all night but thankfully he didn't have to do much work on Tuesday so he was able to get some rest. He hasn't been sleeping really well at night the nights he has been home, though, so he is still really tired and decided to take today off. 

I've been busy with mostly the usual things this week too. On Monday afternoon I had a YW presidency meeting. For our activity on Wednesday evening, we had a combined activity with the YM and my class was in charge. Our ward has been focusing on missionary work this month and the kids were all encouraged to invite a friend to this activity. A lot of the kids did invite friends and there were at least five visiting friends, plus at least 3 of the youth who don't usually come also came. So we had a really nice big group and it was a lot of fun. We had a volleyball tournament...divided into three teams...and we also had card games to play for the the team that wasn't currently playing volleyball. We had snacks too...I made a pan of brownies to contribute. All the kids seemed to have a really great time. I didn't play volleyball...I'm not athletic at all as you know, and now I'm worried that I'll get hit in the head with a ball and get another concussion! But I ended up being the timer and score keeper, which kept me very busy.

I got this photo of one of the teams playing Uno when I went in to tell them it was time to switch, but I was too busy to get any photos of the teams playing volleyball.

I tried to visit my friend Wanda yesterday, but she was sound asleep when I got there so I will have to try again another day. In my free time this week I read The Graveyard Book and I finished it on Wednesday. I passed my copy on to my friend Rebekah to read. Now I am reading another Newbery winner that I haven't read yet called Gay-Neck, the Story of a Pigeon. It's one of the older ones (probably from the 1930s) and so far it's pretty good.

Frank helped me update the budget this morning and after lunch we took some food items to donate to the United Way. Now Frank is making some soup that we will have for dinner tomorrow and for lunch on Sunday. I made some earlier in the week and we discovered that like many soups, it tastes even better the day or two after you make it, so we're making it now to allow time for the flavors to mingle. It's called lemony chicken orzo soup, and it is really good.

That's all I can think of to tell you about this week.