Weekly Review May 1 '26

Wow, a lot has happened this past week and once again I had a lot of bad sleeping nights, so it's all a tired blur. Hopefully this post will make sense! In spite of the exhaustion I am currently feeling, my heart is full and I feel very grateful. I will talk more about that as I go along. 

After I finished last week's post (on Friday, April 24th), Frank and I left for our anniversary "get away". We drove to Baltimore and checked into our hotel, then we went over to the mall where Medieval Times is located. It wasn't time for the dinner / show to start yet, so we walked around the mall for a bit. Frank found a nice shirt at an Under Armour store that was on sale so he got that. Then we went to the dinner and show, and it was a lot of fun. 

We were on the front row of our section which was cool because we got to see all the horses and knights close up. The dinner was pretty yummy (you eat it with your hands--no utensils!) and we enjoyed the show. My only complaint is that it was hard to understand what the actors were saying a lot of the time. I got the gist of what was happening, but it wasn't always super clear what they were saying. Frank said it was hard for him to understand too, so it wasn't just my bad hearing. 

Saturday, April 25th: After a good night's rest (for once!) we had breakfast at the hotel and then got ready to go to the temple. At the temple, we did sealings. It was a really sweet way to celebrate our anniversary--to be reminded of the covenants we've made and the many beautiful blessings we've been promised.

After the sealing session, we went down to the distribution center to do a favor for Tammy. Her son had received his endowment the previous evening (we were sorry to miss attending that, but we had already planned this trip before finding out he was going) and he had decided that the garment tops he purchased were a little uncomfortably tight in the shoulders. She knew we would be at the temple that morning, so she texted me and asked if we could pick up a few tops for him in a bigger size. I wanted to get a few garments for myself as well, but they didn't have anything in my size. That seems to be happening a lot lately.

This little overnight trip was so nice! I didn't realize how badly we needed some time away until we were able to do just that.

The other important thing that happened on this trip was that I was able to make a decision about teaching Seminary next year. Frank and I talked about it a lot (actually, I did almost all the talking and he just listened). While we were on the way to the temple, I was talking about it again and I got this very clear impression (although it's going to be hard to describe). The gist of it was "you've been so focused on the reasons why you want to teach one more year and why you think you should teach one more year, that you are not focusing on what would be best for you and your family and that is the more important thing right now." We started talking about what things we would be doing if I weren't teaching--working in the temple together and a possible service mission for me, among other things--and I suddenly knew that those things are what need to happen now. I cried a bit because I'm sad about giving up teaching, but I also felt incredibly at peace about it. I don't know all the reasons why now is the time for me to make this change, but I feel like a lot of it has to do with Seth--for some reason, this is what he needs. Frank and I agreed that we are probably going to look back in a couple of years and say "Oh, that's why that needed to happen then." For now, it just feels great to feel like we are being guided to do what the Lord wants us to do. (And we already have a better idea of the "why" than we did last Saturday...but more on that later.) 

Seth was at work when we got home from our trip (and we were really happy that he got up and got to work on time without us there to help him!). We picked up a late lunch on our way home and ate when we got home. Even though we had a good night's rest, we were both feeling sleepy after lunch, so we took a nap. After dinner, I cleaned the stove and the kitchen floor. Then we went to the church so I could do some planning for Tuesday's Seminary lesson. This lesson was about the ancient tabernacle--the objects inside it and what they symbolized. I decided I wanted to set up a little model tabernacle, and I wanted to experiment a bit with different objects and get a feel for what was going to work in the room that I had. When we got to the church, the missionaries were having a Book of Mormon class (which they do every Saturday). When the class got out, we found out that an Elder who served here last year (and finished his mission in December) was visiting with his parents, so we got to talk to him and his parents for a while. It was fun to see him again. We stayed a lot longer at the church than I had planned because of the visiting, but I was still able to finish preparing Monday's Seminary lesson when we got home (mostly creating Power Point slides). 

On Sunday (April 26th), I spent the morning reading scriptures and practicing two songs--one that the choir was singing in Sacrament meeting that day and the other was the one I've been trying to learn for an upcoming RS activity. The choir song went well. After church, I had a practice for the other song--it was the first time we had practiced together as a group. I was happy to discover that my practicing at home had paid off and I actually knew the song pretty well. Everyone else seemed to know it pretty well too, so the practice went great.

After I got home, I talked to Jared for a while and worked some more on Tuesday's Seminary lesson. After Seth got home, we had dinner and family night lesson. I was really tired by the time bedtime rolled around!

I taught a Seminary lesson about self reliance & caring for others on Monday April 27th. I liked the lesson, but it was kind of a flop because the youth all seemed to be really tired. That just happens sometimes. I took a 1 hour nap when I got home and spent the rest of the day doing chores, reading (I finished The First State of Being), and finishing preparations for Tuesday's Seminary lesson. Frank and Seth went with me to the church to help me set up the model tabernacle. We set it up in the Primary room, and I think it turned out looking pretty cool! I had objects to represent each of the items in the tabernacle. I had to get pretty creative with some of them and they weren't incredibly accurate, but I also had pictures of each thing that were a lot more accurate representations so they could get a better idea of what the objects probably looked like. There were also scriptures to read about each thing, to help them understand what they might symbolize.

This was the Laver (I added water to the bowl in the morning):

Table of shewbread (I opened the package of pita bread in the morning and had 6 pita on each plate):

Altar of Incense (That's a Glade room freshener on the table; I couldn't have any real incense in the church, of course! I would have prefered to use an essential oil diffuser, but I don't have one of those. At least the room freshener made it smell nice!):

Veil (I have a shot that shows the whole thing later):

Ark of the Covenant (This one was hard to duplicate, but I found this gold disposable tablecloth at the store, so at least it looked like gold. I wish I had a couple of angel Christmas tree toppers--if I had, I would have put them on there.):

Here's the whole room. The table in front is the altar of sacrifice. It wasn't completely ready in this photo because Tammy was bringing some things in the morning to put on it. You can see the whole veil in this photo. I wanted it to be colorful because it's supposed to be blue, scarlet, and purple. I had been feeling frustrated that I didn't have any red, blue, or purple blankets or sheets but then on Sunday night (in the middle of the night when I wasn't sleeping well) I had this flash of inspiration to look for disposable party tablecloths in those colors. I didn't find any purple ones, but I did find blue and red ones and they were perfect! We hung the tablecloths on two rolling chalk / white boards and left a small gap in the middle (with a dowel across the top to hold up the tablecloths) so you could actually part the veil in the middle and walk into the "holy of holies" behind it:

I put this picture of the "gate" on the Primary room door. On the inside of the door, I hung another red tablecloth. I would have done one red and one blue, but I didn't have enough table cloths:

This is the Candlestick (Menorah). I had to get really creative with this one because I didn't even have a candlestick, let alone a Menorah. Even if I had, I couldn't light candles in the church. I really wanted to have something that lit up in some way, though. I kept looking at the two little Easter trees I purchased this year and I knew that the branches were really flexible and they light up using batteries, not flames, so I decided to see if I could manipulate the branches into a Menorah shape. It's not great, but I think it gives you the idea!:

I was really pleased with how the lesson turned out the next morning (Tuesday April 28th). I had a handout with all the objects written on it and the youth were supposed to go around and read the scriptures and write down their thoughts on what each object might symbolize. Most of them spent a lot of time quietly walking around and reading and writing on their papers. It was very calm and reverent.

When we went back to the RS room, they shared what they had written and there was a lot of good insights. Then we talked about some of the symbols in the temples today and what they teach us about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

Here is a photo I took after class, before we took everything down (you can see the completed "altar of sacrifice"), plus one that Tammy took of me during the lesson:

After Seminary, I talked to Tammy about my decision for Seminary next year and we were both sad but she was also very understanding and supportive. 

When I got home, I took a nap again (not sleeping well). I felt like I was sluggish and not very productive, but somehow still managed to get all the regular chores done. Seth worked that morning but his class was cancelled so when he got home from work he went with me to the storage unit to put away the Easter decorations. We also got a couple of large empty bins to take back home because I have convinced him that he needs to go through his room and put away some things that he isn't currently using (but doesn't want to give up). It will probably take him all summer to get it done (he hasn't done anything on this project yet) but hopefully he'll do it eventually.

Frank had a very slow commute to work that morning because a tractor trailer had overturned (swerved to try to avoid hitting a deer) and was blocking all the lanes on I-270 South. All the traffic had to be diverted off of the freeway to get around it. He left home around 4:00 am but didn't get to work until about 5:45.

Besides chores and the storage unit trip, I also read both of my Seminary lessons for next week and I had time to listen to a special episode of the Follow Him podcast that was talking about the ancient tabernacle (would have enjoyed listening to that before the lesson I taught on the same topic, but I didn't have time). There was this cool moment near the end of the podcast when the guest said this: "...it’s a portable tabernacle. How did they know when to move? When the cloud moved, they moved. And I wanna say this to anybody listening. Sometimes the cloud moves in your life and you move. And it might be hard for you, but whenever you move with the cloud, it’ll be sweet. Wherever you go where the cloud is, it’s sweet. And it might be hard, you might be giving up friends, you might be giving up some former thing, you might be giving up a house, you might be giving up something. But if you move with the cloud, it’s always going to be sweet because you’re where the Lord wants you to be. Sometimes if you’re like, I don’t know why I need to do this or I don’t why I need to do this or I have to go here. Cloud might be moving. Cloud might be moving. That’s teaching us as well, God directing his people to accomplish his purposes." When I heard that, I thought "That's exactly what is happening to me. My cloud is moving!!" 

Frank had his regular temple shift that night. I couldn't fall asleep so I was still awake when he got home. He told me when he got home that one of the other workers on the shift with him, who is currently serving as the stake president of the YSA stake that Seth is in, asked him "What are you doing tomorrow night?" When Frank told him he didn't have anything specific planned, he said "I'll probably call you." That left us both wondering what that might be about! In past weeks he has asked Frank questions about how many kids he has at home and what callings he's had, so we wondered if he might have a calling in mind for Frank.

We were supposed to have a guest teacher for Seminary on Wednesday April 29th, but our guest teacher had a death in the family and was out of town for the funeral. She let Tammy know the previous Friday night, and Tammy (bless her!) decided that it would make more sense for her to teach that lesson since it was Part 1 of Leviticus and Tammy was teaching the Part 2 of Leviticus lesson. She did ask me if I could help with part of Friday's lesson and I was able to find some ideas for that one that helped make that one easier for her, but she did all the teaching. Anyway, she taught a great lesson on Wednesday but it was a rough day because a lot of the kids were tired and not making much effort to participate. There were also 3 or 4 girls who were missing for a lot of the class--some of them like to go into the bathroom to finish doing their hair and makeup, but when more than one of them does that, they end up talking to each other and I think they lose track of the time. I ended up marking three of them absent that day because they didn't make it to class until less than 10 minutes before it ended. Just not our best Seminary day! 

When I got home from Seminary I took a 2 hour nap since I had been up so late the night before. I wasn't very productive at all that day, but I did manage to plan both of next week's Seminary lessons. After a few really hot days last week, the temperatures dropped again and it's been quite cool all week. Wednesday it was rainy too, so it felt particularly chilly. 

Frank received a text message from his temple worker friend that morning asking if Frank could meet with him that evening at our ward building, so Frank met with him and he called him to be a high counselor in the YSA stake (the Washington DC North YSA stake). He is assigned specifically to the branch that Seth attends and will need to go to their branch meetings at least twice a month (plus also attend branch counsel regularly). He will also be speaking once a month at one of the units (there are 8 units in the stake) and he will be working with the EQ presidents to help train them. Their stake conference is this weekend, so he will be sustained then and set apart after the meeting. We are still wrapping our minds around what this is going to be like for our family--big changes!! However, I am really excited for Frank to have this opportunity to serve, learn, and grow in this way and I know he will do a lot of good. I also feel that this change is going to benefit Seth in ways that I can't specify--I just feel like it's going to be a big blessing for him. 

Frank's meeting wasn't until 8:00 pm (which is my bedtime) but once again I had trouble falling asleep, so I was still awake when Frank got home with the news about his calling. Then of course, we talked about it for a while and there was a lot to think about, so I didn't end up falling asleep until around 10:30. Unfortunately, I woke up around 12:30 and didn't go back to sleep. I was very glad that I didn't have to teach that morning (Thursday, April 30th). The lesson was great, but a lot of kids were missing that morning. I decided to do grocery shopping and other chores later and instead went home to try to take a short nap. As I was leaving the parking lot feeling super exhausted, I had a feeling a great gratitude for all the growth I've experienced these past 3 years but also huge gratitude that I will not be getting up super early for another year! 

The reason I only took a short nap was because I had an event to attend at 8:30--a VITA breakfast to celebrate the end of the tax season. It wasn't just for the volunteers; there were a lot of United Way people there as well as a lot of local government leaders (Frederick County commissioner, Maryland state delegates, the mayor of Frederick). There were 36 volunteers this year but I was suprised that only 8 of us made it to the breakfast. There was plenty of good food and they shared information about the impact of the program this year (how many tax returns completed, the total refund dollars received, etc.) and we got a lot of "thank yous" for our volunteer work but there was more talking than necessary, in my opinion. 😉At the end, we all got certificates of appreciation from both the county and the city, and they took a photo of the volunteers with all the politicians:

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I was tired and ready for another nap when I got home. 

When Frank got home from work, he went with me to put gas in my car, get a car wash, and buy groceries. I really appreciated his help! When we got home, I finished all the other chores that needed to be done and I was able to finish preparing Monday's Seminary lesson before bedtime.

I did finally have a pretty good night that night--I remember waking up 3 different times, but only long enough to see what time it was before immediately falling back asleep. For Seminary that morning (Friday, May 1st), we had an "Assess Your Learning" lesson. Tammy divided the class into 3 teams and they did some activities / games to demonstrate things they've learned this semester. (I found the ideas for the activities and games). It was a pretty fun day. Also, one of the ward bishoprics provided breakfast for us. 

I went to the temple that morning but instead of the usual 10:00 session, I moved my appointment to the 11:00 session. I knew from experience that even if I slept well the night before (which I did), I would still have a lot of trouble staying awake (because of all the previous bad nights) unless I had a nap first. Moving my appointment back an hour allowed me to come home and take a nap before leaving for the temple. That did help a lot--I really didn't get sleepy during the session.

On the way to the temple and back, I listened to next week's Follow Him podcast, which I really enjoyed. 

After I got home, I updated finances and we ate dinner. I also got to talk with Scott for a while. (He just got released from the bishopric in his ward.) I started on this post last night but was too tired to finish so I am finishing it on Saturday morning. I had a haircut first thing this morning and I also practiced the song for the RS activity because that is happening this afternoon. I'll tell more about that next week.

So, it's been a challenging week in many ways, but it has also been so good! "The cloud has moved" for our entire family this week, but I have had such a strong feeling that we are seeing God's hand in our lives and that He is aware of us and putting us where we need to be and that it is all happening because He loves us and these changes are going to be a huge blessing for us. 

Weekly Review April 24 '26

This week was fairly busy and I also had a lot of bad sleeping nights, so it was kind of a whirlwind. 

When I wrote last Friday (April 17th), I was getting ready to make dinner for the missionaries. That went well and they seemed to enjoy dinner with us. Frank got home late from the temple. 

On Saturday April 18th I didn't have to get up early, but I woke up in the night and was awake for a few hours, so I was still tired. In the morning I worked on my Seminary lesson for Monday (still trying to make it shorter, but I finally gave up). Then I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah. After lunch I prepared my Seminary lesson for Tuesday and then took a nap. After dinner, Frank and I went to a Jazz band concert at one of the high schools. It was a fundraiser for the bands and one of my Seminary students was playing in it, so that's why I was going. Frank was kind enough to come with me so that I didn't have to go alone. The tickets were a bit more expensive than a lot of high school events, but the cost of the ticket included a beverage and a piece of cake. The first group to play was a jazz band from one of the local middle schools and they weren't very good (but they're still learning, of course!) The other two groups were high school students and my Seminary student was in both of those. They did a great job--really, quite impressive. I was surprised when I got there and got a program to see my Seminary student's name listed in the "special thanks" section at the bottom of the program. I was able to talk to his mom and found out that this student had done a lot of work planning which songs they would play and arranging all the rehearsals and so forth. Pretty cool! 

When we got home from the concert, it was starting to get dark but I could tell that it was also going to rain and the lawn needed to be mowed really badly, so I quickly mowed the lawn. I'm glad I got that done! I mowed it the previous Saturday also, but within a few days it looked like it needed to be mowed again. That's what happens when we get a lot of rain. 

Sunday April 19th was rainy. We had church as usual except that Seth came with us because he had a mandatory work meeting that afternoon which was during the YSA Ward time. I had choir practice after church and after that we had a little social with refreshments. Frank had stayed to drive me home, so he joined the social too. We didn't stay a long time, though. We came home and had FHE lesson and dinner and I talked to Jared. Seth went to mission prep class. Frank gave me a blessing that evening because I've been feeling anxious about some things. The blessing has really helped me, and I am grateful.

I woke up at 1:00 am on Monday April 20th, which I never love but I've come to accept that it just happens sometimes. My Seminary lesson that morning was on the topic of "God wants to have a relationship with you". This is the one I was trying to make shorter all week last week. It went a lot better than I anticipated--I somehow managed the time and we finished when I wanted to. We still got out a few minutes late overall, but that wasn't my fault. The stake Seminary supervisor talked a lot longer than the 8 minutes she had asked me to leave for her, so it was her fault we got out late. 😊Afterwards, she wanted to talk to us for a while but Tammy had to drive the carpool so she just talked to me. Her main question was to ask how we are feeling about teaching another year. Tammy and I have talked about this quite a bit, and Tammy had told me she's mentally prepared to teach another year. I know I could do it, too, and in some ways I really want to do one more year, but there are also reasons why it would be better if I didn't, so I've been feeling pretty conflicted about it. I talked with the stake Seminary supervisor about it, and even though she didn't say anything that I hadn't already thought of myself, I left that conversation with my thinking shifted quite a bit, which I wasn't expecting. Up until now, I've been thinking I would do one more year. Now I'm leaning more towards not doing another year. I will need to do some more pondering about it, but that conversation felt like an answer to prayers (because I've been praying about this a lot lately). 

After I got home and ate breakfast and finished chores, I took a 2 hour nap and then reviewed my lesson for Tuesday. I also started practicing the song that I'm singing in a small group for a RS activity and discovered that it is NOT going to be an easy song to learn. There are a lot of tricky rhythms and the accompaniment does not support the parts at all. (It's pretty, though.) I practiced it some more on Tuesday and yesterday and I am seeing some improvement, so that's encouraging, at least.

In the early afternoon, one of the sisters I minister to contacted me to see if I could help her. She had fallen earlier that day and hit her mouth on a wood piece of furniture and knocked her two front teeth in. Her husband had been able to take her to the dentist to get her teeth fixed, but he was recovering from a bad cold and both of them were feeling really wiped out so she wanted to know if we could have their daughter, Genny, over for a few hours that evening to give them a chance to rest. Her daughter is an adult, but she is disabled and is more like a 2 year old, mentally. We did our FHE activity and treat that afternoon and then Frank made dinner while Seth and I went over to pick up Genny. She is actually very sweet and easy to watch. We fed her some dinner and she likes to watch television, so we watched some television with her. She likes old shows from the 50s and 60s and currently loves "My Favorite Martian", so we watched a few episodes of that. I had not seen it before and even though it's pretty cheesy, I actually liked it a lot. 😂Seth went to YSA FHE, and Frank and I took Genny back home shortly before our bedtime. She really has a sweet spirit and we always enjoy having her in our home. 

Also on Monday, one of the boys in my Seminary class got his mission call! He is going to Farmington, New Mexico and starts his mission on July 1st. He texted Tammy and I to tell us on Monday and on Tuesday morning we gave him a few minutes to announce his call to the class. 

My lesson on Tuesday April 21st went well. The topic was using the For the Strength of Youth  guidbook to connect our choices to Jesus Christ and His doctrine. A new edition of this guidebook just came out recently and I was able to get some copies of the new version for the youth who don't have access to the gospel library app.  

Thankfully, I slept better Monday night--one of the few good nights I had this week. After some really warm (even hot) days last week, we had a cold front come in and we even had a freeze warning overnight from Monday to Tuesday. It was quite cold that whole day, but sunny. When I was driving to Seminary that morning, it was so much lighter than it had been on Monday morning (it was cloudy that morning) that I was worried that I was somehow really late! (I wasn't, though.) 

On Tuesday besides regular chores, I planned Monday's Seminary lesson and started planning Tuesday's. I also talked to Scott for a little while and I painted a few of the small dollhouse parts. That's ALL I was able to get done on the dollhouse this week, though. Hopefully I will find more time next week--that project has really stalled the last 2 weeks. 

I started reading a book this week called The First State of Being. It is last year's Newbery winner, and I received a copy of it for Christmas but haven't had a chance to start reading it until now. (I'm still waiting to get a copy of the book chat book, so I don't have anything else to read). It's kind of fun to read this book because it is set in Newark, Delaware in the late summer of 1999. We actually lived in Newark, Delaware in the summer of 1999! Some of the places mentioned I recognize (like the Christiana Mall). I also thought the name of the apartment complex where the main characters live sounded familiar, so I looked it up on Google maps to see if it was a real place, and it was--and it was even in the part of Newark that I thought it would be. 

That night was another bad night. I fell asleep around 8:40, but then woke back up about 30 minutes later and couldn't go back to sleep. I was still awake when Frank got home from the temple around 10:30. Then I drifted off for about 30 more minutes, but then Frank's blood sugar alarm went off and woke me up again. I was awake for another hour or so and then finally went back to sleep until the alarm went off, but of course that was only a few hours later. Frank went back to sleep after the alarm went off because his blood sugar alarm had gone off several more times in the night--thankfully I slept through all the other alarms. After Seminary I took a 2 1/2 hour nap. We had guest teachers for Seminary that morning--a recent YA convert and the Elders from a neighboring ward team taught the lesson. Well, sort of! We found out from the YA when he arrived that the Elders had never contacted him to coordinate. They still managed to pull off a pretty good lesson that appeared to be planned together, even though it wasn't! 

That afternoon I had volunteered to take a sister in my ward to a doctor appointment. That ended up taking over 3 hours because I had to go pick her up (opposite direction from the doctor's office), get her back to the doctor's office for her appointment about 15 minutes early, the waiting + appointment time took about an hour, and then on the way home she needed to stop at the post office to pick up her mail (she has a post office box). She doesn't have the key to her PO box (her son has it) so we had to wait in line and the line was very long and moved very slowly. After we finally finished at the post office, I took her back home and also had to look at one of her medications to see what dose she is taking because the doctor wanted to increase her dose for that medication but wanted to confirm the dose she was already taking. (The doctor visit was actually to see her cardiologist and I think it was a good thing that I ended up taking her because I knew exactly what the doctor was talking about, since I have experience with heart problems and I took this same medication when I was pregnant with Seth. This sister is older and gets confused easily, so she didn't always understand everything that the doctor was saying.) Anyway, I was happy to help her, but I didn't get much done that day. By the time I got home, Frank had started making dinner. I was still tired (in spite of my nap) and didn't get anything else done that evening besides cleaning up after dinner and I read a little bit.

Tammy planned a fun lesson for Thursday April 23rd. She was teaching about the ten commandments, and she divide the youth into small groups and assigned each group one of the commandments. She asked them to sculpt a representation of their commandment, and everyone else had to guess which commandment it was. They had a lot of fun with that. She also gave them some other assignments related to their commandment, and they really did a great job with that and shared some awesome insights. 

After Seminary, I got chores done and then went on a walk with the RS president in my ward, who is also my ministering sister. I enjoyed visiting with her, but the weather had warmed back up and was slightly humid, so I got pretty hot. We had to switch from heat back to air conditioning in the house that night because it was so warm! 

After the walk and lunch, I worked more on my lesson for Tuesday and finally managed to get it planned, although I still have a lot of work left to do on it because this one is going to require a lot more preparation than most. It took me longer to plan than it should have because I was really tired and not very productive. I really should have taken another nap before trying to plan!

That evening I went to a play at one of the high schools--one girl in my Seminary class was in the ensemble and another girl was playing the keyboard in the pit orchestra. The play was well done--I was impressed with the costumes, set, and the singing ability of some of the leads--but I didn't love the plot of the play itself (Mama Mia!). Tammy and I went to the play together and I enjoyed that.

The play was long and it didn't start until 7:00, so I got to bed very late last night and morning came much too early. 

We had a very small group at Seminary this morning (Friday, April 24th)--only 8 kids, probably the smallest class we have ever had. We had three different sibling sets who didn't make it today, plus a few others missing. We knew ahead of time that two of the sibling sets weren't going to be there and that another sibling set wasn't likely to be there, so it wasn't too surprising that the class was small. After Seminary I got the budgeting done but I was really struggling to stay awake so I took a short nap after that. 

Yesterday was our 34th wedding anniversary. We gave each other cards, but we didn't do anything else to celebrate because we planned to celebrate tonight. We are going to go to Medieval Times in Baltimore for their dinner & show, and since it ends pretty late we are going to stay in a hotel there tonight. Then tomorrow morning we have an appointment to do sealings at the temple. It should be fun! It is almost time to go, so I will wrap up for this week. 

Weekly Review April 17 '26

This week has felt busy and I don't feel like I have been able to accomplish much. Well, not since last Saturday, anyway. I did get a lot done last Saturday. After I wrote last Friday, I painted a bunch of the smaller dollhouse pieces while listening to the Follow Him podcast. That didn't work as well as normal because the painting took more of my brain power than I anticipated so I feel like I missed some things in the podcast, but overall I got the gist of it. The reason I had to think about the painting is because I'm not supposed to paint surfaces that are going to be glued to something else and for some of the small pieces, that can be a bit challenging to determine. I finally gave up on painting the pieces of the dormer windows because I couldn't figure all of it out and I was tired so I decided to wait until a time when I have more brain power (which may never happen, but hopefully it will!). Here's a photo of what I accomplished that night:

I let them dry overnight thinking that I could then turn some of the pieces and paint the other side (of the ones that need to be painted on both sides) but I got busy with other things on Saturday and I haven't gotten back to them still.

As I mentioned, Saturday April 11th was quite busy and productive. In the morning, I weeded the flower bed in our front yard. Then Frank helped me glue the left tower side, left front, and four fillstrips to the dollhouse. After gluing, we taped everything tight and weighed them down. I also put weights on the tower front piece because it looked slightly warped and it's one of the next pieces that needs to be glued on. The other thing I did on the dollhouse that day was to fit the top floor to the house body (not with glue) and trace around the house body so that I had a guide of where to paint that piece. (It's kind of hard to explain, but since the dollhouse has a porch & balcony, the top floor piece is a bit bigger than the lower floor pieces. The overhang helps create the ceiling of the balcony. Here's photos:

Two views of the dollhouse with added tower pieces, before adding the weights.

The top floor with pencil tracing (hard to see). I already painted the whole piece with the first coat and sanded it (don't worry--it's not supposed to look good yet; I will be adding more coats of paint later.)

The dollhouse with weights added (literally); plus, I had to get creative to find something to weigh down that narrow left front piece. Protein shakes are not super heavy, but they're better than nothing.

This is the top floor after I painted everything outside the tracing (underside of the top floor; the opposite side has the nicer finish that looks like a hardwood floor). The hole is for the staircase that will be coming up from the lower floor. 

I did all that stuff in the morning (except the painting), with Frank's help. He had to leave around noon because he was doing the AV / IT stuff for a funeral at the stake center. (I didn't know the woman who passed away. They used to live in our stake in a different ward but moved to Pennsylvania a few years ago. Sadly, she was right around my age and died only 9 weeks after being diagnosed. She had some type of cancer, I assume.) Frank got over to the stake center and found out he needed something else that we had at home (they asked him to do something that he hadn't anticipated) so he called me and I took that piece of equipment over to him. He was in the gym and they had a lot of tables set up for a luncheon and it was the most interesting decorating job I've ever seen at a funeral luncheon before--lots of colorful balloons and things like that. It was nice, though. There were a ton of people coming to the funeral from both Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Frank was at the stake center for several hours and Seth worked from 11:00 to 4:00. (I dropped him off at work so that I would have a car). Meanwhile, I finished preparing both of my Seminary lessons for this week which involved creating Power Point slides, a trip to the church, and a trip to the store. I also practiced ukulele for a bit. After Frank got home, I mowed the lawn. It needed it badly but I didn't want Seth to do it since he was recovering from surgery and not supposed to do a lot of physical activity. (I figured being on his feet for 5 hours at work was enough for one day.) By dinner time, I was quite tired so we ordered some Chinese food and Frank picked it up. I did cook some shrimp that had been thawing in the fridge and needed to be used but that was easy and the shrimp went great with the Chinese food. After dinner I cleaned the kitchen floor and then I was able to relax a little before bedtime. I was very tired and achy by then and I actually had sore muscles for a few days which seems ridiculous to me! I'm definitely getting old.

Sunday April 12th was more restful (as it should be). I read scriptures and we went to church. Both Frank and Seth taught the lesson in their Elders' Quorums. I went back over to the church when Seth's ward meetings finished so that I could set up tables and some other things for Seminary the next day. I needed the tables done differently than normal. I also had a long talk with Jared.

Seminary went well on Monday April 13th. It was a DM review and for most of the class time we were playing a game to help them learn the DM scriptures better. They seemed to have fun. The game involved earning cups, building a tower with the cups, and then earning points to use to try to knock down the other team's tower. The team with the most cups standing at the end won the game. (To earn cups, they had to correctly fill in blanks in the DM scripture references and key phrases.) 

I dropped Seth off at FCC for his classes that morning so that I could have the car to go on a ministering visit (he got a ride home with a friend). One of the sisters I minister to has a disabled daughter and her daughter had been sick most of the week. When I asked what I could do to help her, she said "Can you come visit with me? I just need to talk to another adult!" So that's what I did. Besides that visit and the regular chores, I went on a walk with Frank, read both of next week's Seminary lessons, helped Frank plan a short overnight trip for our anniversary next week, sent some Seminary texts, had family night (which included playing Mario Kart), and finished listening to the Follow Him Podcast (but also realized that somehow I was a week behind! I still haven't finished listening to this week's podcast). 

I woke up at 2:30 am on Tuesday April 14th which is an hour early but Frank had a really bad night (he was awake for hours...when he crawled back into bed was when I woke up) so he went back to sleep until about 5:00. My Seminary lesson that morning went pretty well. The topic was focusing on the Savior instead of on our problems. This is something that I would like to do better than I am currently doing! When I got home, I took a 1 hour nap. I started planning Monday's Seminary lesson, got regular chores done, and talked to Scott briefly. It was Frank's temple day, so he got home really late. A couple from our ward brought over some sheet music to me because I've agreed to sing in a small group at a RS activity next month. I was surprised when they also gave me a box of homemade cookies and a thank you card for Frank and I. (Frank has helped them with some IT stuff a few times). I was even more surprised when I opened the card later and discovered that there were two $50 gift cards for a restaurant in there. Why did they do that?? I don't feel like we've helped them that much, and I feel like they have done a lot of nice things for us. They are some of the best people I have ever known!

After a pretty chilly week last week, the temperatures started to warm up and we have had record high temperatures the last few days (all the way up to the low 90s on Wednesday and Thursday and it's in the 70s today). On Tuesday evening we had some rain off and on (at one point it was torrential, but only for about 30 seconds) and I saw two different rainbows about an hour apart from each other.

Around 6:00 pm:

Around 7:00 pm:

Right before bedtime, I talked to Tanner for a little while. He was driving up to see his girlfriend, Linsey. She had just texted him to tell him that her doctor called and told her she had to have the rest of her thyroid removed. They had been planning to meet for dinner that night, but she (understandably) didn't feel like going out. She did say she'd like to have him come over though. She lives in Tooele, so it is a bit of a drive. Tanner didn't know much info then but when I texted him on Wednesday he reported that Linsey was feeling a little better but she has to have another surgery (to remove the rest of her thyroid) and possibly a round of chemo. That doesn't sound so great to me. I think Tanner is pretty worried about her (naturally). He had finals this week too so he's been pretty stressed. Keep him (and Linsey) in your prayers!

We had a guest teacher for Seminary on Wednesday April 15th which is always fun. Our guest is one of the counselors in the stake presidency--the one who oversees Seminary. We never would have asked him to do that (knowing how busy he is) except that he told us he would love to teach our class anytime, so we took him up on that! He did a great job and brought donut holes for the kids which they loved.

Wednesday was also tax day and my last shift at VITA for this year. One of the other volunteers brought in little Pay Day candy bars to give to us. 😊It was pretty busy (not surprising) and I didn't get home until about 3:15. I will see at least some of the other volunteers in a few weeks because we are having a breakfast. They are a great bunch of people and I have really enjoyed working with them!

I had book club Wednesday evening, where we discussed the book Nation by Terry Pratchett. Now we are reading a book called Moloka'i by Alan Bennert. (I don't have a copy of it yet, though.) There was a lot to discuss about Nation, so we ended later than usual and then I had a hard time falling asleep and woke up a couple of hours early so that wasn't so fun. 

After Seminary and grocery shopping on Thursday April 16th, I took a nap but I woke up after only 30 minutes. My plan for the day was to finish preparing Monday's Seminary lesson and plan Tuesday's lesson, but instead I spent most of the day doing regular chores and a whole lot of Seminary related tasks. (One of them was to ask someone to guest teach for us in a couple of weeks and she did accept the invitation, so that was nice.) I did get a little bit more planning for Monday's lesson done Thursday night shortly before going to bed. I'm struggling with this lesson more than normal because our stake Seminary supervisor is visiting our class on Monday and she wants to have about 8 minutes at the end to talk to the kids so I'm trying to keep the lesson short. And this lesson doesn't want to be short! (Plus I'm not good at keeping lessons short anyway.) So I keep circling back around to this lesson, trying to change it so that it's shorter. Frank came home from work early so that he could do some work for one of his clients. 

This morning (Friday April 17th) I woke up shortly after 1:00 am, so it was another bad night and I'm feeling pretty tired. I worked some more on Monday's Seminary lesson this morning (but I still think it's too long). After lunch, I updated finances and after that started on this post. Seth went to work at 11:00 and he will be home at 5:00. Frank has been working from home all day but he just left to go to the temple. They needed extra workers tonight for a special event, so he volunteered to go. We are feeding the missionaries tonight which I couldn't do if Seth wasn't here but I asked them to come at 5:30 to make sure Seth will be home before they arrive. 

I am trying to grow out my bangs and I go around with my hair in a headband most of the time to keep my long bangs out of my face. I took this photo this week to record this fun phase for posterity. I was surprised when it actually turned out to be probably the best selfie I've ever taken of myself (which doesn't mean it's good, just not as terrible as all the other selfies I've taken). 

I need to start making dinner soon and that's all the news I have for this week.

Weekly Review April 10 '26

This week went by fast. That's probably because we've been on spring break and I want it to last forever! I'm not ready to go back to real life again, but I guess I'd better get ready. That being said, I do miss the youth in my Seminary class. I just don't miss getting up really early and the stress of teaching lessons. 

While we're on the subject of sleep, I slept until sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 am nearly every morning this past week. It didn't matter if I went to bed at 8:00 pm or later (never later than 11:00 pm, and usually around 9:00), I nearly always woke up around that time--so I guess that's what time my body wants to get up in the morning. No wonder I am always so tired! We are on the home stretch now, though. When we go back to Seminary on Monday, we only have 5 1/2 weeks left. I think I can manage that.

I wrote last on Saturday evening, so I will start this week's post with Sunday, April 5th. It was a rainy day but we didn't have to go anywhere so we stayed warm and dry inside while watching General Conference and celebrating Easter. We had plenty of snacks for Conference and we enjoyed a yummy ham dinner. It was actually way too much food for just the 3 of us. We've been eating leftovers all week. We really enjoyed General Conference and are looking forward to listening to the talks again and reading them so that we can learn from them some more. During Conference, I did some coloring and finished another color by number:

I talked to Jared after Conference ended. We had a beautiful sunset that evening:

Every day this week I exercised and did regular chores and then tried to get some other things done. (I'm enjoying watching episodes of The Chosen while I jog. I just finished the first season this morning.) On Monday April 6th, I got to talk to Scott for a little while. I also made granola (which I've been eating for breakfast some mornings), sanded some dollhouse parts, planned one Seminary lesson for next week, and Frank and I tuned in to watch Artemis II for part of their moon flyby. 

I've been reading a book called Emotional Inheritance (I finished Nation). It's interesting, but leaves me feeling a little anxious that we have psychologically damaged our kids! I mentioned it to Tanner when I talked to him on Tuesday, and he said "Well, of course you did! But all parents do that to their kids." That was oddly comforting, actually. I think he's right. All parents make some mistakes and it's bound to impact our kids. Hopefully the damage is minimal, though--especially if we're basically good people doing the best we can! 

On Tuesday I made some muffins (also for breakfasts--I've eaten some, and the rest are frozen for later) and did some more work on the dollhouse. I did some more sanding, painted a few small pieces, and dyed the shingles. The shingles have to be left in a pile for several days and stirred a few times each day. They should be completely done by tomorrow. 

I worked my usual VITA shift on Wednesday April 8th. I left on time for once (well, about 1:15--only a few minutes late), but I told them I needed to leave on time because Seth was having surgery that morning. Frank was working from home and he took the morning off so that he could be with Seth and I could still work my shift. I wanted to get home on time, though, so that I could be home in the afternoon in case Seth needed me. Seth's surgery went well and he seems to be recovering well also. It was a good thing I came home, though, because Frank had an emergency to deal with for work that afternoon and someone needed to pick up prescriptions and some OTC meds for Seth. Between that trip, making dinner, and taking a short nap (Wednesday was the one day that I woke up earlier than 6:00), the late afternoon and evening were gone and it was time for bed.

A little more details about Seth's surgery (I actually know very little): the surgery was to collapse / repair a fistula. There are two possible prodedures they do, depending on how large the fistula is and where it is located etc. He ended up having the procedure that involves putting in a thing called a Seton, which is there to help drain abscesses and infection which will help with healing. He will have to go back for another procedure to have the Seton removed. He has a follow up appointment with the surgeon scheduled on May 18th--they may move that appointment to an earlier date if a time becomes available. He is on an antibiotic to prevent infection and they also gave him prescriptions for two pain meds, but he has not needed to use those. He is supposed to take 2 or 3 warm baths per day and avoid sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time. Full recovery is supposed to take 4 - 6 weeks, but those are the only restrictions on his activity so he should be able to resume his normal schedule for the most part. He was able to work a 4 hour shift today. He did ask me to drive him to work since he thought driving might be a bit uncomfortable. This week has been spring break for him too, so he hasn't had classes which has been nice.

Thursday April 9th was a pretty busy day. I planned another Seminary lesson for next week and filed the annual report for Frank's business. Frank worked from home because he had a doctor appointment in the early afternoon. This was the nerve test that the surgeon wanted him to have done. They think he may have some nerve damage in his neck and want him to get an MRI for that. After he got home, he went to fly his drone for a while. After he got home and had dinner, he was starting to get a really bad headache so he went to bed early. He told me this morning that he woke up around 2:00 am with a blinding headache, so he got up and took medicine and then got something to eat. They told him that the nerve test they did could cause headaches later, so apparently it did have that affect on him. He has been feeling better today. 

I had been planning to do the next steps of the dollhouse assembly after dinner (I wanted Frank to help me) but when he went to bed I debated if I should wait or try to do it myself. Ultimately, I decided to give it a try. I took the weights off and removed the tape from the house earlier that day and set it upright. It doesn't look too bad:

The left side of the house is still open in front because there is a "tower" that goes on that side. That was the next step in the assembly: starting to add the pieces of the tower. I was able to install the right tower side and the two tower floors last night:

I wanted to assemble the left side of the tower and the left front piece (very narrow piece on the other side of the tower) as well, but when I tried dry fitting those pieces together, it wasn't lining up as well as I would like it to, and I decided to wait to have Frank help me with those pieces. I'm not shocked that they aren't fitting together completely straight after our experience with the right front piece last Saturday. It looks like we'll be able to get them together without them being totally crooked and looking bad, so I'm glad about that. I just want the best possible outcome. When Frank looked at it with me this morning, we noticed that both the left tower side and the left front piece are also slightly warped. We decided to put them flat on the table with some weight on top to see if we can flatten them out a bit so that they will fit a little better. They've been sitting under the weights all day:

Frank thinks we may be able to add those pieces on tonight. We'll see how they look after we pull them out from under the weights. Once those pieces are assembled, I can paint the exterior of the dollhouse before moving on to add the top floor and the roof. I have a lot more pieces to paint--the porch pieces and the window pieces will be needed next--so I can work on those even if we decide we need to let the tower pieces sit under the weights for a while longer. Oh, I also plan to put a second coat of paint on the foundation because I will be attatching the house to the foundation fairly soon also. I have been able to get a lot done on this project, but the more I do, the more I realize how much more there is to do! It's okay, though--I have been pleased that I have been able to get as much done as I have. I knew it would take a long time and I think I am making decent progress. 

I had a hard time falling asleep last night and I also had a restless night--I remember waking up several times in the night. Because of that, I decided not to go to the temple today. I had planned to do an endowment session and I knew I would probably struggle to stay awake. It was good that I was home to drive Seth to work and back, though. Frank works from home on Fridays but he had meetings and has been pretty busy so he wouldn't have been able to do that for Seth. I got the finances updated this morning and have been writing this post this afternoon. I also got to talk to Tanner for a while. His girlfriend, Linsey, had surgery on Tuesday to remove a mass from her thyroid. She seems to be recovering well. He thinks the mass is probably benign, but they are waiting for test results to know for sure. He felt pretty anxious about her on Monday, but he is feeling better now. 

Other news from Tanner: he started working a new part time job last week--just on Wednesdays. (He still works on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at his other job). He has enjoyed the work so far. 

Tanner also got to attend Saturday morning's session of General Conference. He was at work and his boss was supposed to be attending, but an emergency came up with one of the other employees and so his boss felt like he needed to stay and work instead of going to Conference. He had a ticket to go, however, so he told Tanner that he could take his ticket and go. Tanner sat with his boss's wife (his boss is his former mission president, so Tanner knows his wife well) and they were sitting near the front with Elder Bednar's family, so that was pretty cool. He also said it was really awesome to be there in person for the solemn assembly to sustain President Oaks.

The weather today is beautiful! It has actually been quite chilly all week (of course!--it always gets cold for spring break) but today is a lot warmer which is perfect. We have lots of blooming trees around town and they are beautiful! We are starting to see leaves on a lot of trees too. One day earlier this week I opened the curtains and was surprised to see that our next door neighbor's tree, which had been covered with white balls of blossoms the day before, was now covered with tiny green leaves and the blossoms were gone. I swear that change happened overnight! I'll finish with a couple of photos of some pretty trees.

Weekly Review April 3 '26

I'm a day late getting this week's post written because yesterday was really busy and I didn't have time to write. It's now Saturday evening, April 4th. We really enjoyed the first day of General Conference! 

When I wrote last Friday (March 27th), I had a lot that I wanted to get done. After writing that post, I was able to finish preparing both of my Seminary lessons for this week. I didn't get much done besides that, but I enjoyed watching some Once Upon a Time with Frank while we ate dinner. 

I woke up about 4:30 am on Saturday March 28th, which I wasn't too happy about, but since I had a lot to get done it was kind of a good thing. I had agreed to help clean the church again, so I did that in the morning. Later, I met with my friend to get all her tax information. I got a haircut in the afternoon. I also did quite a bit of work on the dollhouse--I sanded three large pieces (the two sides and the right front) on both sides. It was a lot of work, especially the outsides because they have clapboard siding milled into them and each clapboard has to be sanded individually. I could really tell a difference in how they felt after I was done, though--silky smooth, compared to the pieces I haven't sanded yet, which are really rough. I noticed the next day that I actually had sore leg muscles! (I did the sanding while standing up and it put some strain on my legs, I guess.) Besides the sanding, I also did the first coat of paint on the foundation. 

You really can't tell from the photo that they are sanded, but you can see the clapboards and how many there are on each piece!

Besides all of that, I also did some Seminary related tasks and listened to the Follow Him podcast while doing some coloring. 

I mentioned in last week's post that Frank got the pneumonia and shingles vaccines on Friday morning. He only got a little bit feverish, but his arms got incredibly sore and combining that with his shoulders already hurting from torn muscles, he was really miserable on Saturday and Sunday. He could barely move at all without groaning! I felt so bad for him. He laid pretty low on Saturday and Sunday--he ended up staying home from church--but he improved enough by Monday that he was able to go to work. His shoulders still hurt from the torn muscles, of course, but at least the soreness from the shots has faded. 

Saturday was sunny, but the temperatures were in the 30s in the morning and only reached into the 50s during the day and it was quite windy, so it felt really cold. 

I woke up at 4:30 again on Sunday morning, but after reading scriptures for a while I was able to go back to sleep until about 7:30. It was Palm Sunday and we had our Easter sacrament meeting since General Conference is this weekend. I had to get to church early because I had choir practice. The missionaries asked me to pick up one of their friends and since she didn't mind arriving early, I did that. Her name is Margaret and I actually met her last summer...she was meeting with the missionaries then, but she went to New York to visit with her son for a while. Another friend of mine who moved away seven years ago but moved back a couple of years ago but hasn't been to church since then also came to church and sat with us. It was so good to see her again--I love her so much!! For our meeting, there was a lot of scripture readings and musical numbers. As a choir, we sang a version of John 3:16 set to music. I really liked this arrangement! There was a beautiful spirit in the meeting, there were lots of visitors, and it felt a lot like Christmas. 😊 Afterwards, there was a "linger longer"--visiting and snacks. I made some muffins that morning to bring to that, but I didn't stay long because I wanted to get back home to Frank (since he wasn't feeling well still.) After church, I got to talk to Jared for a while and we had FHE lesson. I got a couple of books with ideas for Holy Week and we have been doing a lesson / devotional every night this week using these books. It's been really nice.

Jared sang two solos this past week--one at an inter-faith Easter concert on Friday (the 27th) and one in his sacrament meeting on Sunday. He sang "How Great Thou Art" for the concert and a song called "Resurrection Hymn" for sacrament meeting. He sent me recordings of both of them, and he did a fantastic job!

I woke up a little early on Monday March 30th (about 2:45). I was able to take a short nap later, but woke up when Scott called. (It was nice to talk to him, though.) I taught in Seminary about recognizing God's power (tied to the story of the Egyptian plagues). Monday was warm with some rain. I went to VITA to input all the tax info for my friend. For FHE activity we played Sequence and we went to DQ to get blizzards for treat. Seth got his blood drawn--he had to have some bloodwork done to prepare for his surgery next week. I have been watching Downton Abbey while running in the morning, but on Monday I switched to watching The Chosen. I watched the first season a few years ago so I am watching it again before going on to the next seasons. I'm really enjoying it--such a great show!

Tuesday March 31st was warm again. My lesson that morning was a life prep lesson about Jesus Christ being the center of all temple worship. The rest of the day I got regular chores done, got to talk to Tanner, sent an email to our next Seminary guest teacher, did some reading (still reading Nation), and did a small amount of sanding on two dollhouse pieces.

Frank worked his temple shift, but he got home early. They had scheduled him to be a veil worker for the last hour of his shift but he couldn't do that because of his shoulders still being somewhat sore, so they told him he could go home early.

Wednesday April 1st was busy because I volunteered to work extra hours at VITA. They needed someone to cover a 1:00 to 5:00 shift and since I was going to be there already (from 9:00 to 1:00) and I didn't have to prepare any Seminary lessons this week (spring break next week so no Seminary), I said I could cover it. The day actually went by fast and I enjoyed it. The other volunteers that I work with are a lot of fun! One of the volunteers did the review for my friend's tax return and I was able to print it up and bring it home with me to give to her. It rained quite hard while I was at VITA in the afternoon, but thankfully it stopped raining before it was time for me to leave because I didn't have a raincoat or even a jacket with me. (It was very warm that day.) After I finished at VITA, we all went to get some dinner. By the time we ate dinner it was close to bed time. I was tired and went to bed.

Thursday April 2nd was our last day of Seminary for the week because spring break began on Friday. One of the bishoprics provided breakfast for our class. Thursday was quite busy because besides all the usual chores (vacuuming, groceries, laundry), I also met with my friend to go over her tax return and to have her sign all the papers. Then I dropped off her signed papers at VITA so that her return could be filed that day. I also took my glasses to the eye doctor to get them adjusted because I accidentally sat on them and bent them a bit! They were able to fix them, though. I made cookie dough in the morning (sugar cookies) and that evening I cut out and baked the cookies, with some help from Seth. In addition to all that, I did all the "first day of the month" stuff (even though it was actually the 2nd day; I didn't have time on the 1st). This includes uploading all the photos I took the previous month to Shutterfly (so that I have them stored somewhere besides my phone and computer), changing the front door decoration, changing the pillow covers on the couch throw pillows, and changing the salt & pepper shakers. 

Frank had a follow up doctor appointment with the surgeon about his shoulders. The cyst in his right shoulder is quite large and she thinks it may be causing him some nerve pain so she wants him to get a nerve analysis, and she also gave him a referral to start PT. Our primary care doctor wants him to meet with another surgeon to get a 2nd opinion on what needs to be done about his shoulders (PT / surgery?) so he has several appointments he needs to make. 

Seth got a call from his surgeon and his surgery time on Wednesday is 11:10--he needs to arrive an hour early. 

Yesterday (Friday, April 3rd) was rainy / misty and cool, although it warmed up later on. I went to the temple to do initiatories; all the tulips have started blooming on the temple grounds, many trees are in bloom (white, pink, and purple) and it is absolutely beautiful!

After I got home, I ate lunch and updated the finances. Then I decorated the cookies I baked the previous day, with some more help from Seth. 

I was planning to take some of them to an event that evening, which is why I needed to get them done yesterday. We ate dinner and then Frank and I went to the event--a tri-ward Easter Cantata. I had to be there early for a brief choir practice (our ward choir sang the same song that we sang on Sunday). Frank was sweet to come with me to support me. He also ended up setting up the cameras to broadcast the event for a few people who wanted to see it but who couldn't come. There were a lot of nice musical numbers and more scripture readings. There was refreshments afterwards and we ended up visiting for quite a while with friends so by the time we got home it was late and time for bed. That's why I didn't get this post written until today.

I might as well write about today (Saturday April 4th) while it's still fresh in my mind. Seth was supposed to work today from 10:30 to 5:00, but they were really slow today so he got off early at about 3:45. That means he was able to see all of the second session of General Conference, though, so that was nice. We spent a good portion of the day watching Conference and it was wonderful as always! It was espcially sweet to sustain a new prophet and to hear both of the two new apostles give talks. I thought there were so many sweet testimonies shared today, and I would say one of the themes that seemed to keep emerging was enduring to the end / changing to become more like Christ. 

We had a big crock pot full of white chicken chili, plus plenty of Easter and General Conference treats (the Easter bunny came a day early!):

I actually made a conscious effort to buy less candy, but somehow it still filled up the bowl! But we didn't have individual baskets full of candy in addition to the candy in the bowl (as we used to do) so I guess it really is less than usual even though it's still too much. 

This morning before General Conference started, Frank and I began assembling the dollhouse body. It was rather stressful, but we manged to get the first part of the assembly done, which includes the base floor, sides, middle floor, and right front. (Lots of tape holding it together and weights on top while the glue dries):

Unfortunately, we discovered that the right front piece is slightly warped, so we couldn't get it to line up perfectly on the edge. I'm somewhat worried that the whole dollhouse is going to look really crooked and / or there will be obvious gaps. I'm also worried that some of the other pieces are also warped. It's hard to tell just looking at them (they aren't badly warped, so it's not obvious) but even a little bit warped is going to cause problems. But I guess we will just wait and see what happens. Hopefully the whole thing will come together and look okay even though it won't be perfect. Frank said "If it doesn't work, we'll just buy you a new kit and start over." That's nice of him to offer, but I really hope all the work I have put into this kit doesn't go to waste! As I said, we'll just see what happens. I'm hoping for the best. 

Today was another warm and beautiful spring day. Of course, it's going to get a lot cooler again next week since it's spring break! I still plan to enjoy it, even if it's not very warm. That's all of our news for this week.