Weekly Review May 30 '25

This week was packed with events and I took lots of pictures. It's been fun, but I'm glad that next week will be a bit calmer and I'm hoping to get into some sort of a summer routine. 

Saturday the 24th, Frank and I went to a wedding for a boy in our ward (one of the sons of our bishop). The wedding was in the morning. It was nice to be in the temple with lots of members of our ward and stake and the wedding was beautiful. It was a little windy and not super warm--I was glad I wore a sweater--but the sky was a gorgeous blue and at least it wasn't miserably hot. 

We stopped for lunch at a place called Moby Dick's on our way home. It's a mediterranean restaurant that has yummy rice and kebabs. We went to the wedding reception later that evening. It was held in a barn and the drive there and back was beautiful. The view outside the barn:

In between the wedding and reception, I cleaned the kitchen floor and got some quilting done but it felt kind of strange (but nice!) that I didn't have any Seminary lessons to prepare. 

Sunday we had church as usual and Seth went to his first temple prep class that afternoon. Shortly after Seth returned from his class, we drove to the airport to pick up Tanner. Seth missed mission prep class that night so he could visit with Tanner and we had family night, too.

I still woke up fairly early on Monday morning and I was rewarded with this beautiful sunrise: 

I exercised on Monday and Tuesday mornings, but things got hectic after that and I haven't exercised the rest of the week. I will get back into that routine next week. 

Since Monday was Memorial Day, Frank was off work but he did end up doing some work for a client...the one that is 90 minutes away from Frederick, so he was gone for about 4 hours. Meanwhile, Tanner wanted to run 20 miles because he is training for a marathon, so he was gone for several hours doing that. He ran out of water when he got to about 14 miles, so Seth and I took him more water. (Seth was tracking Tanner on his phone so that we could find him if he needed anything.) Tanner did successfully complete 20 miles--pretty impressive! 

We were invited to a cook out that evening--it was a combined Memorial Day / Graduation party event for Seth's friend Courage. We cut up a watermelon to take to that. Seth's girlfriend Lorie and her mom were there, as well as a few other people we know from the stake and we enjoyed the food and visiting. 

After we got back home, Seth and Tanner played games together and I finished quilting the second June quilt block. 

Tuesday was Seth's graduation, so Frank took that day off. Lorie came with us to the graduation ceremony too. Frank had asked for accessible seating so he wouldn't have to climb up and down stairs, but he still had a long walk from the car to the arena, so his legs were hurting quite a bit. (I would have dropped him off at the arena, but the traffic getting in and out of the arena was crazy and I would have been late for the ceremony if I had done that.) There is parking right next to the arena but there is also parking on the opposite side of the main highway from the arena (with a walking path that goes under the highway) and we have learned from experience that it is better to park across the street, even though it is a longer walk, because getting out of the parking lot next to the arena is a nightmare. But as I said...that meant Frank had to walk quite a ways. Frank and I were able to sit on the main floor on the front row of the accessible seating. There was an empty row of chairs in front of us and the next row in front of that was the back row of the graduates. As luck would have it, Seth was in the next to last row of graduates and on the same side as us so we were sitting very close to him and were able to get some good pictures. (Tanner and Lorie had to sit in the stands because they only allowed 2 accessible seating tickets per family.) Anyway, Seth graduated!! The program itself was not very long, but there were so many graduates (nearly 475) that it took a long time for the processional, the awarding of diplomas, and the recessional. Just the awarding of diplomas took a full hour! The whole thing took two hours but since we had to drive there and back (about 25 minutes each direction) and Seth had to arrive an hour and a half before the ceremony started, it took up a good portion of the day. It started raining during the ceremony and rained the rest of the day so we got wet walking back to the car but fortunately it wasn't raining really hard. I took a lot of photos; here are some of them:

Lorie helping Seth put on his medal and pins

Marching in:

Getting his diploma:

Returning to his seat:

Recessional:

This is one of the boys in my Seminary class playing one of the drums for the recessional. They have a really cool drum line for the recessional:

Taking a few quick photos in the rain:

A sweet lady in our ward who is from Samoa made two leis for Seth for graduation. One is a candy lei and the other one is a red white and blue ribbon lei. (Those are his school colors). He couldn't wear them during the ceremony, but when we got home we took some photos of him wearing those:

Lorie gave Seth a gift of candy and she also gave him this really cute book for graduation. She is reading it to Seth in this photo:

The story inside is actually perfect for Seth; very appropriate!

We all went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse to celebrate Seth's graduation that evening. Lorie was going to come with us, but after the graduation ceremony she wasn't feeling well, so her mom picked her up. I liked that the mozzarella sticks we got for an appetizer were shaped like boomerangs:

Wednesday was Seth's 18th birthday, so the celebrations continued. Frank worked from home that day. Seth requested biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast, so Frank and I made those. (Mostly Frank made them...I helped a little bit, and I made some scrambled eggs to go on the side.)

Opening presents:

(He liked the funny card we got him.)

Building the infinity gauntlet Lego set:

I spent the afternoon making the puzzle that Tanner sent me for Mother's Day. Tanner helped quite a bit and Frank helped a little bit too. I started around 2:00 and finished it by 5:45.

We ordered pizza for Seth's birthday dinner and I also made him a chocolate cake. (With vanilla frosting...that's what he always wants.)

That evening Frank and I went to a HOA meeting because they are planning to remove the trash corrals from our neighborhood and they were giving us a chance to give feedback. We don't want the trash corrals to be removed because that would mean we would have to get a large trash can and pull it from our backyard around our row of townhomes to the sidewalk and then out to the street, behind our parking spaces. We would be pulling it a long ways over grass and uphill. One direction is such a steep hill that we would never be able to get it up that way and the other direction is also uphill (not quite as steep) but a couple of electrical boxes block the way so we would actually have to drag our can through one of our neighbor's yards. And if we ever have more than an inch or two of snow, it would be impossible to get it out front at all. Several other homeowners came with similar concerns and the meeting lasted two hours, but thankfully didn't get too heated. We're still not sure what is going to happen, but there's a possibility that the removal of the corrals will be delayed until more discussions can occur and some possible solutions may be reached. 

By the time we got home from the meeting, it was after 9:00 and I had to get up early to take Tanner to the airport  and Frank had to get up early to go to work so we went to bed. Unfortunately, my mind was still mulling over the meeting and wouldn't shut down, so I had a hard time falling asleep and didn't fall asleep until sometime between 10:30 and 11:00. Then I woke up again at 1:30 and couldn't go back to sleep! I gave up and read scriptures and played some games on my phone until it was time to take Tanner to the airport (we left around 4:30). It was really nice having Tanner here for Seth's graduation and for his birthday!

After I got back from the airport, I ate breakfast and then went back to sleep for about an hour and a half. I woke up again shortly after 9:00 and watched the live feed of the Walkersville High School graduation because 5 of the kids in my Seminary class were graduating from that high school. I got to see all 5 of them receive their diplomas and it didn't take very long...their high school is a lot smaller than Seth's! I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon getting caught up on things like laundry, vacuuming, and grocery shopping. That evening we went to a graduation party for Florian, one of the boys in my Seminary class who graduated that morning. I made a potato salad for that and more than one person told me how much they liked it. (Mom's recipe is so good!) The party was outdside and fortunately the weather cooperated. Wednesday it rained all day with temps in the 50s but Thursday the sun came back out and the temps were in the 70s. There was a lot of good food at the party and we enjoyed visiting with friends. 

The family who hosted the party live in a beautiful Queen Anne style Victorian home that was built in 1895. They offered to give us a tour of the inside, which we were quick to accept. I didn't take any photos since it's a private home, but it was really cool! When they bought the house about 9 years ago, it still had old Victorian wallpaper on all the walls, but it was too dark for them so they painted all the walls lighter colors but they left all the wallpaper and decorative elements on the ceilings intact and it really looked beautiful! They also had many of the original light fixtures (including angel lamps on the newel posts of the main staircase), some of the original windows (including some stained glass windows), and the original pocket doors, beautiful fireplaces (one in every room), woodwork, and wood floors. The house has bay windows, a large wrap around balcony on two sides of the 2nd floor, a little Juliet balcony in front, a tower with a cupola roof, and a widow's walk on top (we even went up there). It was really fun to see that house!

Last night I finally got a decent night's sleep, thankfully. This morning I went to the temple and it was very nice to be in the temple again. I just haven't been able to be there as regularly as I like lately. In spite of my good night's sleep, I still felt a bit sleepy while I was at the temple. Too much lost sleep over the last several months I guess...I feel like I'm always going to be tired! 

After I got home, I got the budget done and started working on this post.

Tonight we went to another graduation party for another boy in our ward named Tommy. He isn't in my Seminary class because he goes to a different high school that's farther north. (Or he went there, I guess I should say...he just graduated, so he doesn't attend school there anymore.) We saw quite a few people from our ward and stake there as well. It was definitely a week of celebrations!

If you've been keeping track, you'll know that I didn't have to cook dinner this entire week! Memorial Day / graduation cook out on Monday, ate out to celebrate Seth's graduation on Tuesday, ordered pizza for Seth's birthday on Wednesday, graduation party on Thursday and another graduation party tonight. I can't say I've missed cooking! It's been nice. 

I've had quite a bit of trouble with allergies this week and Seth has too. Seth got really congested and had a bad headache yesterday but he's doing better today. I've had headaches a few days also and off and on I have sneezing / runny nose / itchy eyes spells. I'm just grateful that it's not constant, but I hope it goes away soon. 

Tonight we had a brief strong thunderstorm and we'll be getting more rain overnight. Frank has received two text message alerts in the last two hours from the University of Maryland because they have had two separate tornado warnings. We are under a tornado watch in Frederick until midnight. When we look at the radar, it looks like most of the really severe weather is going to miss us, though, We will definitely get some rain and possibly some thunder and lightning, but that's probably it. (And we like it that way.) 

I can't think of anything else to report, but that is probably more than enough. 😅

Weekly Review May 23 '25

Just have to start out by saying that I am done with Seminary for this year!! Wednesday was our last official day, but we did meet yesterday and today for the youth who wanted to meet. No more 3:30 am alarm until August. 😄After Seminary today, I updated the attendance and made sure all our records were correct and then locked our class records for this semester. Seminary graduation will be the first Sunday in June and the second Sunday in June I will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting, along with some of the youth in our class, so I do still have those things, but no more lessons to prepare. That's a huge weight off my shoulders. 

We've had quite a bit going on this week. On Saturday morning I got my hair cut. I did the regular Saturday chores, got both of the June quilt blocks marked, and we had the Elders over for dinner. (Seth missed dinner with the Elders because he had to work). We fed the Elders spaghetti and since we didn't want them to get their white shirts dirty, we gave them aprons to wear and also towels to tuck into their collars. Then we had to take photos of them because they looked so funny:

Sunday was busy with choir practice before church (we sang in Sacrament Meeting that day) and that afternoon my team teacher and I had a meeting with the bishop to discuss the Seminary Sacrament Meeting and he also asked us again about next year...how we feel about teaching, etc. Once again, we told him we are willing to teach another year but also told him some pros and cons of continuing. When we finished, he said "I've heard what I need to hear"...whatever that means! I'm going to assume I'm still teaching next year until I hear otherwise. 😂  We had family night on Sunday, including the activity because we knew our evenings were going to be busy this week. We've actually been struggling to have family night consistently lately because Seth always works on Mondays, Frank is at the temple on Tuesdays, and there have been a lot of other activities going on in the evenings lately...so we decided to have family night while we had the chance! We played Mexican train (dominoes) for the activity. We did the same thing last week but it is a long game with a lot of rounds so we continued where we left off last time. (And we still aren't done.) Seth is winning, by far, at this point. After family night, Seth went to mission prep. He could have driven himself there and back but his friend Henry offered to pick him up so he went with his friend.

Monday was Seth's last day of high school. He didn't have to go to the CTC that day (all the dual enrollment classes ended on Friday the 16th) so it was a short day for him. He was happy to come home and play games in the afternoon before going to work that evening. Seth still went to Seminary on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. I taught on Monday, my team teacher taught on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we played a Doctrinal Mastery game and had a nice breakfast. I made a breakfast casserole for that and my team teacher brought some donuts, fruit, and chocolate milk. 

On Tuesday Seth didn't have to go anywhere except I had scheduled him to get a haircut. I was busy with all the usual chores and I also finished preparations for the game we were playing in Seminary the next day and mixed up the breakfast casserole so it would be ready to bake in the morning. I went with Seth to the church that night for activities because I needed to rearrange the tables and chairs (for the game)...Seth helped me. Then I just hung out at the church, reading scriptures and listening to an audio book until Seth was done with his activity. For some reason, my allergies started really acting up that evening...I kept sneezing and my nose was running nonstop! My nose was really red and sore after just a few hours. It was crazy and caused me to feel pretty miserable. I was very happy to get home and go to bed. Fortunately, it seems to have been an isolated allergy attack. I haven't had much trouble the rest of the week.

The weather has still been strange. Tuesday was really nice, but Wednesday and Thursday it rained a lot and the high temperatures were in the high 50s or low 60s, so it felt quite chilly. Everyone was wearing long pants and sweaters...not normal for the middle of May! Today has been a little warmer, although it's still cooler than normal. 

As I already mentioned, Wednesday was the last official day of Seminary. One of our senior boys just got his mission call and on Wednesday morning he told us where he is going. (We all made guesses about where he was going first.) Turns out none of us guessed right. He is going to Ghana Accra West...wow! I actually have a good friend who has a son who served in that mission, so I got my friend and my Seminary boy's mom connected with each other so his mom can ask questions if needed. We gave some gifts to the Seniors in our class:

(The drink is Power Aid) My team teacher actually prepared these gifts...I didn't have to do anything except discuss ideas with her. 

Seth had graduation practices on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings. They all started at 8:00 and he had to be there sometime between 7:30 and 8:00, so not much different from a regular school day except that he got out earlier. He could wear regular school clothes to the practices on Wednesday and Friday, but yesterday there was a Senior Awards Ceremony right after the practice and they all had to wear their dress clothes and caps and gowns for that (and for the practice). The awards ceremony was really long...it started at 10:00 and wasn't done until 12:30. I didn't go to it because I didn't think Seth would get any awards, but they had a live stream of the ceremony available so I did watch that while I did other things. Seth didn't get any awards where they read his name, but he did get to stand up a couple of times to be recognized--he's graduating with highest honors for his weighted GPA and he also has a high unweighted GPA and got an award called the principal's award for his participation in college dual enrollment classes. A lot of students got these awards, so they just explained what they were and asked everyone who received them to stand up to be recognized, but didn't read off all their names. The graduation practices on Wednesday and today were both over around 11:30, so Seth had the afternoons off. He did work on Thursday evening though. 

On Wednesday I went with the Elders to a teaching appointment. Originally, it was at 2:00 but it got moved to 5:00. They were meeting with a lady who has come to church a couple of times already. They always meet with her at a park. Fortunately, there's a pavilion there because it was raining most of the day on Wednesday. The lesson went well and I always enjoy being a part of missionary work!

I taught my last Seminary lesson for the year on Thursday morning. (Which I didn't get a chance to prepare until Wednesday afteroon, but it came together quickly). I planned a short lesson (did a shortened version of one of the scripture based lessons for the week) and then we played a game (an LDS version of Taboo). I also provided breakfast--I made cinnamon buns and also brought fruit and chocolate milk. Both Thursday and Friday were optional days and we agreed to do them because at least 4 youth said they would come. On Thursday we had 4 come and this morning there were 5. My team teacher taught this morning and she brought coffee cake, fruit, and hot chocolate (yes, it was chilly enough for hot chocolate). It was nice to teach with a small group...the kids were more willing to share their thoughts. I did miss all the kids who weren't there, though. I will miss the Seniors who won't be there next year and I will miss seeing all of them regularly over the summer. I have come to love all of them. But it will also be nice to get a break!

I haven't really felt the full effects of no Seminary yet (since we had it every day this week) but yesterday I did have some free time and got to talk to Amy on the phone for quite a while and I did some reading, too. 

I had a few late nights this week and Wednesday night I didn't sleep well at all. I didn't get a chance to get a nap yesterday but today I took a 2 hour nap after I got home from Seminary...that was nice!! I wanted to go to the temple today but I knew I would be fighting to stay awake. My left eye has also been red, sore, and slightly swollen the last few days and it hurts a little to wear glasses (and of course I can't wear my contacts, either, with an infected eye) so I decided to stay home and rest my eye and take a nap instead. Tomorrow Frank and I are going to a wedding, so I will get to go to the temple tomorrow. 

I did get quite a bit of quilting done this week also. Yesterday I finished quilting one of the June blocks:

I started on the second one and got quite a bit done (I was working on that while I talked to Amy). I should be able to finish quilting it this next week.

I'll finish up with a few more photos I took this week. Yesterday when I got home from Seminary, there were a couple of mallard ducks playing in some puddles in the parking lot:

 And this morning we had a beautiful sunrise:

Weekly Review May 16 '25

 When I finished writing last week's post on Friday the 9th, I was hoping that I would get some Seminary lesson prep done that evening. I did--I was able to get Monday's lesson planned that evening. On Saturday I prepared the rest of the lesson (Power Point slides etc.) and I also got a rough outline done for Tuesday's lesson. That lesson's topic was how to study General Conference talks, and the hardest part of the lesson preparation was picking which talk to use. I read about 6 different talks from April's General Conference and finally settled on Elder Kearon's talk. I did some more preparation on that talk on Sunday and finished it up on Monday. Both lessons went quite well; I felt particularly good about Monday's lesson. When I was preparing that lesson, I had an idea come to me for a different way to do some group work and it worked out really well. That was definitely inspiration, I am sure, and I am very grateful!

Seth spent most of Saturday working on his paper (I helped him a bit) and that evening he had to work. He successfully drove himself to work and back without any issues and it is nice that he can take himself places now! My back was hurting when I woke up Saturday morning and it hurt all day--it wasn't severe, but enough to slow me down and I decided not to sweep & mop the kitchen floor as I usually do on Saturdays. My back was hurting more by Saturday evening, but after a good night's rest it felt a bit better and by Monday it was pretty much back to normal. I don't know what I did to strain it, but I'm glad it healed quickly. 

Sunday was Mother's Day, of course. I got cards from Scott & Seth and Jared & Tanner called me. Tanner sent a gift and Jared sent a card but both of those arrived a little late. (They sent them with plenty of time to arrive by Mother's Day, but both got delayed.) Frank gave me a book about bird watching and Seth gave me a candle that he made at a YM activity.

The gift from Tanner was a puzzle:

At church, we combined with the YW for a lesson and the Elder's Quorum provided some fruit and pastries for us. We sat at tables with flower and balloon centerpieces. It was really nice. I got to talk to Mom on Saturday and Frank talked to his mom on Sunday.

On Monday I picked Seth up from school after his second block again so that he could work on his paper some more (I helped him with it too). He got quite a bit done and wanted to show it to his teacher the next morning before finishing it. When he came home from school on Tuesday, he said he had finished it and turned it in so I didn't see the final version (I'm not super happy about that). I'm sure it was not an "A" paper but it was definitely a lot better than his rough draft. Hopefully he did well enough that he will get at least a C in the class. He's ready to be done with school and I am ready for him to be done too! 

Before I picked Seth up from school on Monday I went for a short walk and took some photos of the river:

It's so amazing to me that this river is only a few minutes' walk from my house. 

On Monday evening I did some sewing and got one of the June quilt blocks sewed together:

On Tuesday it rained nearly all day long. We've had a lot of rain this week (including a thunderstorm about an hour ago) and the lawn really needs to be mowed but it's too wet! I went to JoAnn's (it's still open but will be closing very soon) and stocked up on thread in a lot of different colors. The thread was all 50% off. I did more sewing that afternoon and sewed together the second June quilt block:

There was a RS activity Tuesday evening at the same time as youth activities so that was convenient. The activity was a talent showcase--they invited everyone to bring things to display to show their talents. (This wasn't a performing talent showcase, but people with performing talents could bring photos of their performances.) I brought my afghan, one of the woven ribbon pillows I made, and most of the pillowcovers I've been making to display. It was fun to see all the different things people brought--artwork, pottery, photographs, and handicrafts. One sister designs book covers so she had photos of all the covers she has designed. We also had an ice cream with toppings bar and there was time for visiting. It was really nice, but I got to bed pretty late.

Wednesday was a busy day also. After Seminary I got chores done and then I got an outline done for one of next week's Seminary lessons. Then I went shopping for some clothes because most of my summer shirts are several years old and most of my shorts are uncomfortable because they are getting too tight. (Unfortunately, I've gained a lot of weight in the last year.) I went to Old Navy and found some capri pants and several t-shirts that I like. After that I went to the mall to go to a jeweler to get my wedding ring checked and cleaned. (It's been 6 months since I had it repaired and resized and I'm trying to get it checked every 6 months.) I got back home in time to eat a late lunch and then I picked up one of the boys in my Seminary class from school and gave him a ride to an appointment (except he did the driving because he's trying to get all his driving hours so he can get his driver's license). In the late afternoon, I cut out the border strips and back pieces for both of the June quilt blocks. I was trying to finish doing that so Frank offered to start making dinner and he made almost all of it by the time I was done. 

After dinner I went to book chat. I did finish the book (The Screwtape Letters) earlier that day. We had a good discussion about it...lots to talk about! Now we are reading All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I don't have a copy of the book yet, but hopefully I will soon. I got to bed late again...that happened a lot this week.

Yesterday was busy too but mostly with the usual things (grocery shopping, laundry, vacuuming...). I worked on my Seminary lesson a bit...made some Power Point slides and so forth. I have a lot of it done, but I still need to figure out a few things. I need to plan a game for another day and I have a few ideas for that but haven't chosen one of them yet. For my last day (more of a spiritual thought than a lesson and also a game) I haven't decided what I'm doing yet but that's not until Thursday so I still have time to figure it out. Last night Seth had to work and Frank was doing maintenance for his business. I sewed the border strips on the quilt blocks and cut out the batting and backing for them too. I pinned the layers together so they were ready to quilt...and then realized that I had forgotten to mark them! So I will have to unpin them and mark them and then pin them back together before I can start quilting, oh well! I am getting there. 

I was up a bit late again last night, finishing that project. 

We had a pretty sunrise this morning...getting up early isn't all bad!

After Seminary I was able to go to the temple which was particularly nice since I hadn't been able to go for a few weeks. I did initiatories and was done quickly so I went for a walk all the way around the temple before heading home. 

After I got home I had lunch and washed my hair (it was all oily) and then got the budget done. After school, Seth went to spend some time with his girlfriend Lorie...he had dinner with her family. (And thankfully he got there and back safely!) Frank got a haircut. After dinner I started on this post but didn't have time to finish it before I needed to leave for a concert. This was a band and orchestra concert for one of the girls in my Seminary class. I really enjoyed it but I also got pretty sleepy during some of the more peaceful songs. 😂

I talked to all three of the older boys this week and they are all doing well. Scott has some good things happening at work and Tanner just started a new semester of school last week. Jessie just started a new semester also. I totally forgot to mention last week that Jared finished his associate's degree from BYU-I online, and he got his diploma in the mail last week. 

He's planning to do more schooling later but right now they are focusing on getting Jessie through school. 

At Frank's work they have had a lot of budget cuts so they are not going to do any more interviews for new positions right now. When the reorganization happens in June, everyone will get assigned to a position. Eventually there will be a few more positions to interview for, but he's not sure when that will happen. He is, of course, kind of anxious about where he is going to end up and what he will be doing and who he will be working for / with, but the good news is that he will for sure still have a job and will have the same salary. That's a lot better than a lot of people working for the federal government can say, so we are grateful. 

It's pretty late and I am really tired so I will sign off for this week and go to bed.

Weekly Review May 9 '25

 It's been another busy week. Last Saturday (the 3rd) I finished preparing my Seminary lesson for Monday. I spent a lot of time quilting and I was able to finish the butterfly quilt block. I also finished watching the last 4 episodes of Madam Secretary (mostly while I was quilting). 

That evening, I went to a polynesian dance performance because one of my Seminary students was one of the dancers. The performance was really nice--reminded me a lot of the dances we saw when we were at the Polynesian Cultural Center. There's something about Polynesian dancing that is so heartwarming; I really love it! Frank came with me to the performance which I really appreciated--made it more fun for me to not be there alone. We were surprised when we arrived to discover that there was food too--that took care of dinner for us. 

Seth worked a little bit on his English paper that morning and that evening he was working (otherwise, maybe he would have gone to the dance performance with us too.) 

Sunday was particularly busy. Besides regular church meetings, I also went to a baptism and to an openhouse. Frank didn't go to anything except for regular church meetings because during Sacrament meeting his right leg started to hurt a lot. He had to go out to the foyer and sit on a couch with his leg up on a chair to get some relief. We don't know why that happened, but he spent the rest of Sunday lying down to rest his leg. It's been gradually getting better since then and he was able to go to work and to his temple shift as usual, thankfully. 

We had a particually sweet fast and testimony meeting in our ward. We had a lot of visitors so our numbers were larger than usual and that felt really great. When we started to sing the sacrament hymn, I felt this really powerful, beautiful spirit. I'm not sure exactly why, but it just felt really wonderful to be able to unite with many other believers in Christ to sing praises to Him. There was a powerful feeling of unity and love throughout the whole meeting, which was reflected in the testimonies and in how people were interacting with each other. It was just really sweet and inspiring.

The baptism was for a lady that the Elders in our ward have been teaching for months. She's been coming to church regularly and the Elders have also asked a lot of ward members (including me) to go with them to teaching appointments for her, so a lot of ward members know her (she's awesome!!) and a lot of people were at the baptism. (Her brother, son, and two grandkids attended as well, so that was great!)  It was a really beautiful baptism and when she was being confirmed she was crying because she was so happy. Afterwards, she shared her testimony and said things like "I feel like I've had a hole inside me for most of my life and now it is being healed". Really sweet!

I came home from the baptism long enough to eat some dinner and then I went to an openhouse for a boy in our ward and his new wife. They got married a year ago, but their wedding was in Utah so this was just a little openhouse to give us a chance to meet her. There were a lot of people there, too (many who had been at the baptism). This boy was one of my 94 Primary kids back when I was the Primary president. All my kids are so grown up now.

Monday was busy with the usual chores and I also finished preparing my Seminary lesson for Tuesday. Seth worked on his paper a bit before going to work. I sewed the backs onto the May pillow covers that evening so they are on the couch now:

The backs are made out of the same fabric as the outside border on the fronts:

I'm happy with how they turned out.

On Tuesday I was trying to get a lot of extra things done besides the usual chores. I can't even remember what they all were now, I just know I had a long list. One thing I tried to do was to get in touch with my cardiologist to get cardio clearance for a colonoscopy. It's been two weeks since I went to the gastroentrologist and they have not called me back to schedule the procedure which means that they have not heard back from my cardiologist even though they faxed over a cardio clearance request for me. They told me if I hadn't heard back from them in two weeks that I should call my cardiologist directly to try to get the clearance. So I tried...but I wasn't successful. I got through their menu to the line for "cardio clearance" but it rang several times and then a recording stated that the maibox was full and hung up on me. Then I decided to try the appointment line because I thought I would be able to talk to a human. However, I got a recording saying that all their receptionists were busy and that I should leave a message and they would call me back. I left a message, but guess who hasn't called me back? I'm not very impressed with the way they run their office! I don't remember having issues like this in the past with them. I haven't had a chance to try again but I will have to do that soon. I checked back in my records and discovered that the last time I was there (almost exactly 3 years ago) they told me that I should come back in 3 years for a check up, so I'm expecting that I'm going to have to go in for a check up before they will give me cardio clearance. I had no idea this was going to be such a long process!

On Tuesday after school Seth had a doctor appointment--his medicine check and a well child check up too. That evening after I dropped Seth off at his YM activity, I picked up his suit pants that we took to a store to be hemmed. He tried them on last night and they look a lot better now.

Wednesday I tried to prepare Seminary lessons but all I managed to do was read through both of them. I kept getting interrupted and after Seth got home from school I spent the whole evening either helping him or doing things that he normally does (but that he couldn't do because he was working on his English paper). He's been telling me that his paper isn't due until Friday the 16th, but on Wednesday he realized that it's actually due on Tuesday the 13th so he doesn't have as much time as we thought. I spent over an hour looking over his paper with him and trying to help him come up with ideas and to find some better sources. His CTC class is basically done (they aren't doing any new work) so I have been telling him that he should work on his paper during the hours that he's at the CTC, but he hadn't made much progress. He said that since no one has work to do in that class, everyone is talking and it's really distracting and hard to focus. That's when I got the bright idea to have him come home from school on Thursday after his first and second block classes are over so he can work on his paper at home. There doesn't seem to be much point in him going to the CTC when he's not actually doing / learning anything and missing a day or two isn't going to matter since he has hardly any absences this year. Anyway, after a few hours of working on the paper, we took a break and I took him to the church parking lot so he could practice backing into parking spots because that's one of the requirements to pass the driver's test and he was scheduled to take the test today. We spent about an hour doing that and he made a lot of progress and got to the point that he could consistently back in without going over the lines on either side. After we got back from the church, we had dinner and then Seth worked on his paper some more while I mowed the lawn (usually Seth's job). It really needed to be mowed and couldn't wait because of rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.

On Thursday morning I woke up at 1:00 am and didn't go back to sleep, unfortunately. I had a lot to do so I didn't have time for a nap. I did get a lot done--I got all of the regular chores except for laundry done before I picked Seth up from school after his second block. Then I spent quite a bit of time helping Seth with his English paper. (He's got a fairly good start on it now, but he still has a lot to do to finish it.) Frank had an employee appreciation lunch and activities that day at work, so he left work later than usual. Oh, I forgot to mention that earlier this week he had his annual performance review and he got "exceeds expectations" which is always great to hear. Thursday evening I took Seth to the church to practice backing into parking spaces for a while longer, and we drove around a while too. I was really happy to get to bed last night--I was exhausted!

Today it rained most of the day although it finally cleared up a few hours ago and we're even seeing a little bit of sun now.We had a lot of rain this week, actually, including some thunderstorms. The days are mostly warm but today it's rather chilly. It definitely doesn't feel like May today! This morning I went to another polynesian dance performance for the girl in my Seminary class. My team teacher and I went together. I wanted to go again because the sound system wasn't working great at the performance that I went to on Saturday so it was hard to hear the parts where they were introducing the dances. Besides, I really enjoyed the first performance and was happy to see it again. This performance was at an elementary school and it was a lot of fun. We also got to talk to the girl in our Seminary class before the performance, which was great. 

Yesterday I didn't have the brain power to work on Seminary lessons (too sleepy) so I still don't have either lesson ready. I wrote most of this post yesterday and also did most of the budgeting because those tasks are easier for me to do when I'm tired. I was hoping that would give me more time to work on lessons today but here it is 6:30 pm and I haven't done anything yet. After Seminary I dropped my car off at the dealership so they could fix my windows (the part finally came in). Then I had time to change and eat breakfast before leaving for the dance performance. After I got back from the performance, I finished the budgeting and added a little to this post before it was time to pick up Seth from school. (He got out 2 hours early today.) We drove over to the church so he could practice backing into parking spots a little bit more before we drove over to the MVA so he could take the driver's test. And he passed! 😄So all that practicing the last few days plus the hours of driving we've been doing the last year + paid off. Now we get to pay nearly twice as much for our auto insurance, but at least we have a 3rd driver in the family and we never have to go through all that again. The driver's test took way too long. His appointment was at 1:30 but we had to wait in line so long that he didn't actually start the test until nearly 2:30 and it was close to 3:30 by the time we finished all the follow up paperwork and made it home. We weren't home long before the car dealership called to say my car was ready so we went to pick it up. Then we started to make dinner and discovered that the shrimp we wanted to use was really freezer burned so we ordered some Chinese food instead and had to go pick that up. We are finally done with dinner so after I finish this post, maybe I will get a little bit of work done on Seminary lessons before going to bed. 

I'm happy that I only have a few more lessons to prepare this year. We have two weeks of Seminary left. Our official last day is Wednesday the 21st because that is the last day of school for the seniors that go to Walkersville High School (we have 5 of them in our class). Seth and the other senior who go to his high school actually get out earlier because their graduation day is earlier. Their last day of school will be Monday the 19th. Anyway, we decided to offer to have Seminary on Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd for any of the underclassmen who wanted to come. We told them we would do it if at least 4 of them commited to come. Surprisingly, 5 or 6 of them said they wanted to come so we will meet those two days also but it will be a smaller group and a lot more informal. (We're thinking more of a devotinal with a discussion instead of a full lesson and then a game and some food.) The end is definitely in sight!

We're excited that Tanner is going to be able to come for Seth's graduation. Scott needs to work and Jared can't take time off, either, because he just took time off to go to Jessie's sister's wedding. It will be nice to have Tanner here for a few days, though. 

That brings you up to date on us for now.