Weekly Review June 5 '26

I feel like May went by really fast. Well, sort of. The parts where I was lying awake wishing I could sleep felt very slow. (On that note--my sleep patterns haven't changed much. I had at least 3 nights that I was awake for 2+ hours in the night, and I woke up between 3:00 and 4:30 all the other mornings. I did take a couple of naps here and there which helps.) This week has been pretty busy, with a lot of new or extra things going on. Here's the details for each day:

Saturday May 30th: Frank had to leave early to set up all the IT / AV stuff for the regional Women's Conference. I went over later when the meeting started. It was very good. Tracy Browning (from the Primary General Presidency) was the keynote speaker and after that there was a panel discussion. A lot of great thoughts were shared! After the broadcast ended, there was a light lunch served and I got to visit a bit with friends. 

I spent the rest of the day figuring out my talk for Sunday, listening to the Follow Him podcast, and reading the book chat book. I also went on a walk with Frank and took a short nap. I was feeling pretty tired and somewhat grumpy most of the day (probably from lack of sleep). 

Sunday May 31st: The morning was quiet with scriptures and a few games (I do the NYT games every day). I was speaking in Sacrament meeting and felt somewhat anxious about that all morning...I felt like I reverted into my old anxious self, which was frustrating. Once the meeting started, I felt better, though. The first youth speaker spoke for about 1 minute, the second one for about 3 minutes, and the third one for about 8 minutes. That means I got more time to speak than I anticipated, but I had planned a five minute talk with extra stuff to add in if I had more time, so it worked out fine. I actually could have said more if there had been more time! When Tammy got up to give her talk (with about 25 minutes left in the meeting) she said "Sister Cleveland and I have no trouble speaking for a long time, so we are not going to get out early today". She was right! 😅 We each spoke about 10 minutes, and I made sure I left 4 or 5 minutes for the closing hymn and prayer. I feel like my talk went well, overall, and several people said nice things about it to me afterwards.

Frank came to our Sacrament meeting to hear me speak, and then he went to YSA meetings. We had our 5th Sunday discussion about the Constitution (as everyone across the USA did). After church, I went to choir practice. Another couple in our ward invited us over for dinner that evening. We had a quick family night lesson after Seth and Frank got home from their meetings. I also did a quick assessment over the phone with the mission lead for the family search service mission. He just asked me questions about my computer skills. He said the next step is for me to get interviews with my bishop and stake president. I have an interview with my bishop on Sunday. After those things were done, we went to dinner with our friends. (Seth fed himself and went to mission prep class). This couple is quite a bit younger than us, but we seem to have a lot in common. We really enjoyed dinner with them, and ended up visiting until past our 8:00 pm bedtime. They live out in the country in a beautiful location. We had to drive over an old covered bridge to get to their house.

Monday June 1st: I took Seth to work and then met Tammy at the church to clean out our Seminary closets. We usually clean them out after each semester, but we never got around to it last semester, so they were pretty messy and we had a lot of stuff we don't need anymore. It took us a couple of hours to finish that task; we enjoyed visiting with each other as we worked, of course! I went to Walmart to get groceries on my way home. 

I got to talk to Amy for a while that afternoon before picking Seth up from work. Since it was the first day of June, I changed the door decoration, pillow covers, and S&P shakers. When Frank got home from work, he went through his clothes and added his donations to the two bags of my clothes. He also went through the trunk of his car and threw away a bunch of stuff.

We had family night activity (played Dead Ringer) and treat before Seth had to leave for YSA FHE. I talked to Jared that evening because there wasn't a chance to talk to him on Sunday.

Tuesday June 2nd: This day was quite busy. I got a later start because I took a nap after exercising and eating breakfast. I got meals planned and I was also able to talk to Scott for a few minutes. I had lunch with my friend Rebekah. She very recently returned from a trip to Utah to help her daughter (who had her first baby); she had been gone most of the month of May, so we had a lot to catch up on. On my way there, I stopped at the storage unit to put a few things in it. When I was pulling into the parking lot, I suddenly realized that I couldn't remember the code to get in! I tried a couple of codes which didn't work. Then I tried to call Frank to see if he could remember, but my call went to voicemail. Then I decided to try again because I was pretty sure I finally remembered what it was, but that code didn't work either. I was giving up and leaving when Frank called me back. He gave me the same code as the last one I entered, so I decided to try that one more time, and it worked that time. (I must have typed a number wrong or something.) I wasn't too thrilled with that senior moment, though. It's not pleasant to suddenly not be able to remember something that I have known for years! 

After my lunch with Rebekah, I took the two bags of clothes to Goodwill to donate. Then I watched the live stream of the TJ High School graduation, because four of the youth in my Seminary class were graduating. They don't read the graduates' names in alphabetical order at TJ (they have a unique recessional where each student chooses a "walking partner", so they seat them so that they meet their walking partner) so I had to watch and pay attention if I wanted to hear each of their names and see them walk across the stage. There were over 400 graduates, and it turns out that one of my Seminary students was the next to last student to walk, so I had to listen to the entire thing! 😐But two of my students also played drums in the recessional, so that was cool to see, and I was able to get good screen shots of all four of them receiving their diplomas. I was also able to clean all the bathrooms while I watched / listened to the graduation ceremony. 

That evening was my first shift at the temple. I had planned to drive myself, but then my friend who is going to be giving me a ride on the 2nd Tuesdays--and who is one of the assistant shift coordinators and was assigned to show me around all evening--texted me and said that three sisters on the shift had called in sick, so she wasn't going to be able to spend the whole shift training me. Instead, she wondered if she could pick me up and give me a ride down so that she could spend that time giving me some instructions. So that's what we did. When we got to the temple, she showed me where the workers' dressing room is located, and after I changed I went to the office where a member of the temple presidency met me. He met with me briefly to give me a few instructions and to ask me a few questions, and then he set me apart as a temple worker. I went to another office to get some processing done and then fixed my nametag (it said "Karen Cleveland", so they changed it to "Annette Cleveland".) Then my friend (Sherrie) met me and she took me downstairs to the prayer meeting. Frank came to that, too. (I also saw him when I first came in because he always mans the recommend desk during the time when all the temple workers are arriving.) That's the last time I saw Frank until it was time to go home, though! 

After the prayer meeting, Sherrie showed me around part of the temple; we didn't have time to see everything. She took me to the laundry and the clothing rental and up to the endowment rooms to show me a few things there and showed me where the offices for the endowment coordinators and veil workers are located. Along the way, she introduced me to a lot of the other workers and asked a few of them to share their best advice with me. 😇 After that, Sherrie was needed to do some work and I was assigned to be the hostess on the main level for 30 minutes. They figured I could handle that job on my own, because all I had to do was smile and say "welcome to the temple" to everyone who walked by. I also gave directions to a few people who had not been to the DC temple before, but that was easy since I know my way around the main parts of the temple really well. After my 30 minutes as hostess, Sherrie returned and took me up to initiatories to show me a few things there. Then they needed her to work in initiatories for a while, so she gave me the instructions for initiatories to study while she did that. We were hoping that I would get a chance to observe her do a few intiatories and maybe even do a few myself, but there wasn't time for that before the shift ended. I went home with Frank, but I had to wait quite a while for him because he was working the veil for the last session. I waited for him "on the bridge"--at the DC temple, the main entrance where the recommend desk is located is in a separate small building that is connected to the main temple building with a long, wide hallway / walkway that is connected to the 2nd floor of the temple, so it's basically a bridge. There are windows all along the wall on both sides with nice views of the temple grounds, and lots of chairs to sit in while you wait. While I was waiting, a couple of brothers came by and introduced themselves and told me how much they enjoy working with Frank. 😊 It was nice for Frank and I to talk together on the way home. We got home very late, though. Seth hadn't arrived home from work yet, but he did get there within about 30 minutes.

I promise I won't give that detailed of a description of every temple shift! Just wanted to remember my first one. It was a little bit crazy, but mostly good.

Wednesday June 3rd: This day also started later since it was one of the nights that I was awake for hours in the night. (And when I say "later", I mean 7:00, not exactly sleeping half the day away!) While awake in the night, I had been feeling quite a bit of anxiety about the temple--I'm very comfortable there as a patron, but being a worker is really new to me. When I went back to sleep, I had stressful temple dreams where I was messing up a bunch of stuff.  I don't know why I was feeling so anxious about it, though, and that was frustrating. When I was exercising that morning, I was watching The Chosen, and the story of Mary and Martha from the Bible was depicted in that episode. Remembering that story helped me quite a bit. When Jesus tells Martha that she is careful and troubled about many things, it reminded me of myself! I realized that I shouldn't be so worried about doing everything right. I need to focus on the most needful things: the importance of what we are doing in the temple and helping the patrons feel loved. That's it! 

I was able to work on the dollhouse a little bit on Wednesday. I painted a second coat on some smaller decorative pieces. I didn't have time to do more because I was volunteering at a back tax clinic that afternoon / evening. The back tax clinic is also run by VITA, and it's basically the same thing we do during the tax season except it's for people who have taxes from previous years that still need to be filed. It was a bit different, though, because we weren't each assigned one taxpayer per hour. Instead, most of the taxpayers were scheduled for multiple hours and all of the volunteers worked together to get their taxes filed. Some of them had multiple years that needed to be filed and there were also some complicated situations to figure out. I spent most of the time working with one tax payer who needed to file taxes for 2023 but also needed to file ammendments for 2021 and 2022. There were a lot of issues to work through. By the time we got done, it was after 7:00. I got home in time to eat a little bit and then went to bed!

Thursday June 4th: I woke up at 3:00 because I had a charley horse in my left calf. Not the nicest way to wake up. Besides getting all the regular chores done, I also talked to Tanner for a while and watched part of the Walkersville high school graduation to see one of my Seminary students graduate. Walkersville high school is a lot smaller than TJ and they also put the graduates in alphabetical order, so I didn't have to pay as close attention. Plus, my Seminary student's last name starts with G, so that was closer to the beginning and I didn't need to watch the rest, which was nice!

That afternoon, Frank & I took a much needed nap and then we made dinner and ate together while watching an episode of Once Upon a Time. After dinner, we went on a walk. (Seth was at work). 

Friday June 5th: This morning I woke up at 4:30, which is pretty good for me! I exercised and watched a few episodes of The Chosen. (I exercised every week day, although I didn't always mention doing that.) Then I updated the finances and had lunch before writing this post. It's only mid afternoon now. I'm not sure what I will be doing the rest of the day, but I will probably go on a walk and work on the dollhouse a bit. (I still haven't accomplished much on that project this week.) I didn't go to the temple today since I went on Tuesday. I will go on Fridays on the weeks that I don't work at the temple. 

Frank got his second dose of the Shingles shot this morning. His arm is already feeling pretty sore! Better than getting Shingles, though. 

Seth has been pretty busy with work. He worked Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and will work today too. (Leaving in a few hours). Most of his shifts have been later in the day--like 3:00 to 10:00 or 10:30. He will work about 25 hours this week, total. That's a lot more hours than he was getting at Roy Rogers. Seth also went to a movie and to Institute on Wednesday. I told him he has to work on cleaning his room at least 30 minutes every day, so he's been doing that this week. He has thrown out a few things and I see a slight improvement in his room. Hopefully by the end of the summer, his room will look a lot better!

Besides the things I already mentioned plus work, Frank has been planning some things for our trips this summer. He prepaid for parking at the airport and he also reserved a rental car (both for our trip to Utah). I forgot to mention around the end of April that they announced at UMD that there would have to be some lay offs and that they would happen by the end of June. Frank found out yesterday that all the layoffs happened this week, and he was not one of them, so that is good news! We weren't incredibly worried about it, but it's still nice to know for sure that that's not going to happen to him. 

In between everything else, I have done some reading--I'm trying to finish Notes from Underground for book chat. I'm over halfway through with it now. It isn't long, but it requires thinking, so the reading is going kind of slow. 

That's all I can think of to write about this week. I'll finish up with a few photos of the local wildlife. I've been seeing a deer behind our house quite a bit this week, and yesterday there were two rabbits on our lawn / the neighbor's lawn.

Weekly Review May 29 '26

This was my first full week without Seminary and I enjoyed some down time, but I wouldn't say I got more sleep. I keep waking up earlier than I need to, or I lie awake for hours in the middle of the night. It went like this: Saturday I woke up at 6:00 am. Sunday I woke up at 5:00 am. Monday I was awake from midnight to 3:00 am and then went back to sleep until nearly 7:00 am. Tuesday I woke up at 1:00 am and finally gave up and got up around 4:30. After exercising, showering, and eating breakfast, I took a 1 1/2 hour nap. Wednesday I woke up at 4:00 am. Thursday I woke up at 3:00 am. This morning, I was awake from 1:30 to about 3:30 and then went back to sleep until almost 7:00 am. I really hope I move out of this terrible sleep cycle at some point! In the meantime, I'm grateful that I've had the option of going back to sleep for a while on the nights that I've been awake in the night for hours. I am also grateful that I'm not feeling the weight of preparing and teaching lessons on top of the lack of sleep. It does make a difference!

Here's a rundown of what we did each day. 

Saturday May 23rd: Seth worked his last Roy's shift. It rained all day. Frank made chocolate chip banana bread (delicious!) and I practiced ukulele and cleaned the kitchen floor. I also listened to part of the Follow Him podcast and did some "digital clean up"--I went through all my bookmarks on my laptop and deleted the ones I'm not using, removed a bunch of Seminary files I don't need anymore, and deleted a bunch of photos from my phone. Frank and I went to the mall so that I could get my wedding ring cleaned and checked. Then Frank browsed at Barnes & Noble while I did some clothes shopping at Macy's. I got four shirts, but Frank didn't buy any books. 

Sunday May 24th: Before church, I read scriptures and finished listening to the Follow Him podcast. Frank came with me to church but didn't attend our ward's meetings because he needed to go to the YSA branch presidency meeting and branch council. Then he went to the YSA ward's regular meetings too. Right after church, one of the counselors in the bishopric asked me to speak this Sunday in sacrament meeting. It is our annual "Seminary sacrament meeting", so I was expecting that I would be asked to say something. He asked me to speak for 5-10 minutes, which feels like a large spread to me--a 5 minute talk and a 10 minute talk feel completely different to me! I know now that he has also asked 3 of the youth and my team teacher to speak also. With five speakers, I think 5 minutes is probably all the time I will have. I have actually kept forgetting all week that I need to prepare (I think that's a good thing...I used to stress out about it all week when I was asked to give a talk). I came across a quote yesterday morning that I think is going to be the basis for my talk, though. I will figure out the details tomorrow. 

After church, I had an appointment with my bishop so I could ask about being a temple worker and also talk about the possibility of a service mission. After everyone got home from church, I talked with Jared and we had dinner and family night lesson. 

Monday, May 25th: Frank didn't have to work because it was Memorial Day. Frank went with me get groceries that morning. Seth had to work from 2:00 to 6:00, so after lunch we did our family night activity (Mario Kart) and read scriptures before he had to go to work. I had a slight headache so I didn't feel like doing much, but I did muster up enough energy to go through all my clothes. I pulled all of my clothes out of drawers and closets and put them all on our bed--they covered the entire bed!

I went through everything and filled two trash bags full of clothes to donate, plus a few things were so old and ratty that I just threw them away. Then I put all the summer clothes in my closet and moved the winter clothes to the spare room. My closet is a lot emptier / neater and that feels good. 

We had a yummy dinner to celebrate Memorial Day. I had planned to have bratwurst (with peppers & onions), potato salad, and watermelon. Then when we were at the store, Frank decided we also needed to have baked beans and I decided we needed to have corn on the cob. So we had all those things, and it was delicious!

Tuesday May 26th: As I already mentioned, I woke up way too early and took a longish nap after exercising and showering. After I got up from my nap, I talked to my friend Sherrie who works at the temple on Tuesday evenings. I want to work that shift (Frank works then too), but it's going to be tricky because Seth often has to work on Tuesday evenings also, and the timing doesn't always work for me to be able to have the car on Tuesday evening. Sherrie said she will give me a ride to the temple on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, and another friend (MaryKay--I talked to her on Wednesday) said she will give me a ride on the 4th Tuesday of the month. So I've decided that I will work at the temple twice a month and the other weeks I will go to the temple as a patron on Friday mornings, as I have been doing. That feels good to me! My friend Sherrie also served a family search service mission, so I asked her about that and got some good information. 

Besides those things, I also got regular chores done, talked to Scott for a little while, and I got a little bit of work done on the dollhouse. I sanded some of the small parts that I painted about a month ago and I also re-painted the ceiling of the first floor using a roller. It looks a lot nicer. The dollhouse project has really stalled the last 3 or 4 weeks, so it felt good to get a little bit done on that. Hopefully next week I will make even more progress. 

Seth worked from 2:00 to 6:00 again and Frank had his regular temple shift after work, so he got home late. I was still awake when he texted me to say he was leaving the temple at 9:30, but I was completely out before he got home--didn't hear him come in at all. 

Wednesday May 27th: This day was quite busy. Seth had to be at work at 6:30 am; he worked until 10:30. That evening he went to Institute, as usual. 

On Tuesday, the RS president contacted me and asked if there was any possibility that I could pick up a couple of food orders for people in our ward the next day. The Bishop's Storehouse is about an hour and a half away...on the south side of DC...so it's a bit of an undertaking. Although I had things I wanted to do, I didn't have anything I absolutely had to do, so I told her I'd do it. I was able to talk to Amy on the phone while I was driving down and back, so that helped me enjoy the trip a lot more! I was only at the storehouse for about 30 mintues because a nice young service missionary helped me fill both of the orders. I read to him what was on the form and pushed the cart; he got everything off the shelves for me, so it went really quickly. When I got back home, I left one of the food orders there because it was getting picked up from my house a few hours later. I quickly ate some lunch and then delivered the other food order to the family who needed it. My team teacher, Tammy, met me there to help unload the order. It was raining, so it was nice to have that extra help! 

The mission lead for the family history service mission contacted me via email that day and we set up an appointment for him to help me fill out the application for that mission. I also spent some time that afternoon making a gift to give to my team teacher, Tammy. It was sort of a combination birthday / end of serving together gift:

The adapted scripture is one that Tammy pointed out to me the first year we were serving together. She was reading it, and the spirit touched her to see that it could apply to what we were doing with our Seminary class, by changing some of the words. Tammy shared her experience with me, and I have always remembered it. 

That evening I attended a virtual training meeting connected with VITA--we were learning about Low Income Tax Clinics, which is a service provided through the law schools of some of the local universities. They don't complete tax returns at these clinics; instead, they help people who have tax debt and need to set up installment agreements or make other arrangements with the IRS. They wanted us to know about this service so that when we are working with taxpayers who might benefit from this service, we can give the taxpayer information about it. The training was short but interesting.

Thursday, May 28th: Seth's 19th birthday--not sure how he has gotten so old! This day was busy with the usual chores (grocery shopping, laundry, vacuuming) plus I wrapped Seth's presents and made his cake (chocolate with vanilla frosting--that's what he always wants!). I also took Tammy's present to her (she has the same birthday as Seth) and met with the service mission team lead to fill out my application. We met via Microsoft Team Meet (similar to Zoom) and he had me share my screen with him so he could see what I was doing and walk me through the process. It wasn't really that complicated and it didn't take long--there were just a few specific pieces of information that he needed to give me to fill in. 

After Frank got home from work, Seth opened his presents. He actually only got one present from us, but Scott also sent a present that I wrapped for him. The present Seth got from us was a bigger purchase, which is why he only got one thing. He told us he really only wanted one thing and would be happy with that, and that was fine with me--made shopping really easy! I'm not even sure what exactly it's called, but it's extra storage space for his Xbox, which will allow him to add more digital games (or something like that!). Scott sent him a book which is the first in a series. Scott has been reading this series and thinks Seth will like it too, and they can talk about it together.

Later on, we took Seth out for dinner (Outback Steakhouse--his choice) and after that we had his cake:

I forgot that in between opening presents and going to dinner, Seth took a milkshake to his friend Jacob in our ward who also has the same birthday (four years yonger than Seth; Jacob was in my Seminary class this last year). When I was the Primary president, Tammy and Jacob's mom (Michelle) were my two conselors. We've always thought that it's fun that Michelle and I have sons born on the same day and that it is also Tammy's birthday!

Oh, I also forgot to mention that I was contacted by someone at the temple that afternoon to set up an appointment for me to meet with a member of the temple presidency to be set apart as a temple worker. Since Seth has a long shift on Tuesday (3:00 pm to 10:30 pm), I will have time to get to the temple and back while he is working, so I set up to do that this coming Tuesday. After getting set apart, I will shadow one of the shift coordinators for the evening. I'm looking forward to it, but also feel a little anxious. There's a lot to learn, but I'm sure I will love it after I feel more competent.

Thursday was an absolutely beautiful day, by the way. After many days of clouds and rain, the sun came out and it was in the low 70's with a breeze. Perfect! Today was the same. 

Friday May 29th: I went to the temple to do initiatories. 

Always wonderful to be in the temple!

After I got home and ate lunch, I updated the finances (as usual). I finished the regular weekly updating and then I worked for a while attaching business receipts to invoices. A big stack of those has accumulated over the years and I decided it was time to take care of that! I worked on that task until dinner was ready (Frank made dinner, bless him!) While eating dinner, we watched an episode of Once Upon a Time. I've spent the rest of the evening writing this post. 

Frank spent the evening setting up a couple of computers for a broadcast that he is helping with tomorrow. It's a broadcast of a women's conference for the United States Northeast Area. The conference is in New York City but is being broadcast to stake centers in the area, and Frank was asked to help with the tech for that. 

I've had some down time most days and I have enjoyed watching some episodes of Downton Abbey. (I'm still watching The Chosen, but I do that while I am exercising in the mornings). I have also been reading Notes from Underground. It is slow going because it's philosophy and I find myself re-reading sentences pretty often to try to understand them better. It's interesting, though, and even a bit funny at times and I am about a third of the way through the book. 

I believe that covers everything we did this week and it is getting late, so I will sign off and go to bed.

Weekly Review May 22 '26

This was another busy week. I'll try not to get too detailed so this post won't be super long!

When I wrote last week, we were in NC for Nicole's memorial service, which was held on Saturday, May 16th. That morning, Frank and I went to the store to buy a book for people to sign at the service. When I got dressed that morning, I also discovered that the dress sandals I packed to wear to the service weren't in good shape at all--one was kind of broken and didn't stay on my foot very well--so when we went to the store to get the book, I decided to also look for some shoes. I was able to find some cute black dress shoes, so I got those as well as some tights so that the new shoes wouldn't rub against my feet and cause blisters. 

We went from the store to the church to help with some more set up--mainly putting up a lot of photographs of Nicole. They called the service a "Celebration of Life" and it turned out nice. Frank and I were asked to give the prayers (me opening, he closing). Most of the service was opened up for anyone who wished to share memories or stories of Nicole. Most of the people who talked were her close friends. I didn't really have the opportunity to get to know Nicole very well (I only saw her about once a year), so it was nice to hear what her friends had to say about her--that she was always so kind and thoughtful and would do anything to help them. Some of them were really emotional, and one of them said that she was going to try to be more like Nicole from now on. I came away from that service thinking that her life may have been short, but it was definitely worthwhile. 

After the service, the branch provided food for us. They told us it was not going to be a full meal, but it really was--several kinds of sandwiches, meatballs, sausages, fruit, veggie trays, cheese, crackers, cold cuts, and desserts. There was a ton of it, too. We were really grateful for that! 

Sister Camille Johnson, the General RS president, was visiting in the Frederick area and had a special devotional for all the women 18 and up in our stake (held at our stake center), plus seven other surrounding stakes that afternoon. They asked Frank to set up a Zoom link for those who couldn't be there in person, so after eating, I was able to go to a room by myself to watch that meeting while the family continued to visit and then cleaned everything up. The devotional was awesome and I'm really grateful that I was able to watch / listen, even though I wasn't able to be there in person. 

That evening we took Frank's parents to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then they came to our hotel room for a while to visit. His mom wanted to show us a quilt that she is working on for Scott (I wish I had taken a picture of the quilt).

We drove back home on Sunday May 17th. I wrote last week that the trip down felt shorter than normal to me. Well, that was definitely not true of the trip home! We got on the road about 8:30 am, and the first part of the trip was quite pleasant. 

About three hours into the trip, however, the traffic got bad with lots of slow downs and stop & go traffic. There was road construction and at least one accident, and the GPS directed us off of the freeway three different times to avoid major problems. In the middle of all that, when we were still about 4 hours from home, I got a migraine and got really sick to my stomach. I was completely miserable--just wanted to be home so I could curl up in bed--and it felt like we were never going to get there because we were in practically stand still traffic. I finally started to feel a little bit better after I lost my lunch, and I dozed off for a short while. Eventually we got out of the really bad traffic and we finally made it home shortly before 7:00 pm. That 8 hour trip took over 10 hours! We unpacked and went to bed (didn't even bother to eat dinner--Frank had eaten some snacks and I didn't want to eat anything yet). Both Jared and Tanner called to talk to us while we were driving home but I didn't enjoy it much because they both called while I was in the throes of feeling sick, and we didn't talk very long.

Seth had an appointment that day with his stake president--he was called to serve as the 1st Counselor in his branch EQ presidency. He's been serving as a Sunday School teacher, but he will be released from that calling now.

I was feeling better on Monday May 18th, thankfully. I was able to get up and go to Seminary, although I didn't exercise since I still had a lingering mild headache and I hadn't eaten since lunch on Sunday. I taught my last lesson and felt like it went pretty well in spite of a lot of distractions. One of the boys brought in some cinnamon rolls that his mom had made so that was one distraction (although a yummy one--I'm not complaining!). The other distraction was that we had purchased pillowcases for all the seniors and we wanted everyone to sign those (but without the seniors knowing that was what was happening). So Tammy had set up the pillowcases and fabric markers in another room, and she was pulling 2 or 3 kids out of the room at a time to sign them. That meant that there was a lot of coming and going. It was a bit challenging for me as the teacher because when I wanted to call on someone to answer a question, I wasn't always sure who had been in the room to participate in the thing we had just done. I was also trying not to call attention to the fact that people were leaving the room! 😂So it was kind of crazy, but overall I felt good about the lesson, which was based on Joshua 24:15 ("Choose you this day, whom ye will serve") Tammy told me afterwards that I did a great job handling all the distractions. And honestly, even though it was crazy, everyone was awake and there was a lot of energy in the room and I definitely prefer that to everyone falling asleep in their chairs! 

After Seminary, my day was full with regular chores, reading scriptures, reading Moloka'i, taking a short nap, and going with Seth to a doctor appointment. His appointment was with the surgeon, and they scheduled his surgery for June 15th. The last surgery was to place a seton to help drain all the infection. This surgery will actually remove the fistula, using one of two possible methods. The surgeon isn't sure which one she'll be doing until she gets in there and looks at it closely. 

Seth had his orientation for Chick-fil-A that afternoon. He also went to YSA FHE that evening. I forgot to mention that last week was his last week of classes for the semester, so he is done with school until at least the fall.

I went to bed around 8:30 on Monday evening, but unfortunately I woke up about an hour later (9:30ish) and was not able to go back to sleep until after 2:00 am. At least I wasn't teaching Seminary that day (Tuesday May 19th), so I survived on less than 3 hours of sleep. Tammy and I had a phone conversation to finish planning Wednesday's class (we didn't do that in person after Seminary because she was helping with the carpool) and then I took a 1 1/2 hour nap. 

That afternoon I had a follow up appointment with my eye doctor. They took images of the inside of my eyes and both of my eyes are okay. He confirmed that there was no retinal detachment, tears, or holes in my left eye. I got a better explanation of what is going on with my eye (I'm not going to try to repeat it here; if you want to understand it better, you can look up "posterior vitreous detachment") and I feel less anxious about it now. The doctor said this happens to a lot of people as they age and that since this happened in my left eye, it's not unlikely that it will happen with my right eye within a few years. I'm still having occasional flashes of light and faint floaters in my left eye, but that is normal for up to 3 months. If I have another sudden onset of dark floaters and / or flashing lights, then I will need to get checked again, but other than that, I don't need to worry about it. 

I didn't get a whole lot done on Tuesday besides the things I have mentioned. I was very tired (naturally) and I also still had a slight headache, so I just didn't have the energy to do much and decided it was okay to rest and let some of the chores wait until another day. Instead, I finished reading Moloka'i. It was a really good book. 

Seth didn't have to work on Tuesday but I did have him mow the lawn. It's a good thing, too, because it started raining on Wednesday May 20th and it has been raining most of the time since then. (He almost forgot to mow it and thankfully I remembered shortly before sundown on Tuesday--he was out there mowing in the dark before he finished, but our lawn mower has headlights, thankfully.) We had near record temperatures on Monday and Tuesday (in the 90s!) but a cold front came through with the rain on Wednesday and the hight temperatures the last few days have only been in the 50s. It does not feel at all like May! 

Wednesday was the last day of Seminary for the school year, and my last day, period. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that fact. I actually slept well Tuesday night--I got about 7 solid hours of sleep, which is amazing, for me. For our last class, we played a couple of games--an old testament version of Taboo (to review some of what we learned) and a DM review game. We also had breakfast (Tammy brought muffins and egg casseroles, I brought chocolate milk and fruit), and we gave gifts to the seniors and gave each of them a few minutes to share advice / testimony. 

Gift bags (we added brownie mixes and the pillowcases later):

One of the pilowcases:

We had a short devotional, which we took from the recent YA devotional given by Elder and Sister Stevenson. And I also got a few minutes to share a few parting words. On one of the days I was gone last week, Tammy told the class that I wouldn't be teaching next year and she started passing around a thank you card for them to sign, so she gave that to me. She also gave me a small gift and card from her. One of the boys in our class brought both of us some flowers, chocolates, and a thank you card. It was really nice to receive all of those things!

This is the gift Tammy gave me. I am so glad that she gave me plants that I can't kill! 😂In the card, she said that she chose these "as a reminder of the way you have helped the youth dig their roots deeper so that they can access the Living Water even when life circumstances feel hot and trying. Also, just like succulents, you have been resilient and endured tough conditions in this calling. In spite of the challenges you have turned to God consistently and have flourished. Thank you for nourishing me and all of the youth with your genuine love and testimony!"

We got so busy that we forgot to take a class photo (I did take several of the kids during the games), but Tammy and I took this selfie together after class:

After I got home from Seminary, I cleaned out my Seminary binder and bag and got regular chores done (including the ones I didn't do on Tuesday). 

That evening we went out for dinner. We used some gift cards some friends gave us a while back, so it didn't cost much which was nice. There was a lot of rain / thunderstorm that evening, but we managed to go and come when it wasn't too bad. Seth went to Institute after dinner; Frank and I went to sleep!

On Thursday May 21st I woke up at 3:30 am! Well, I wasn't too surprised by that--it's going to take my mind and body a while to "reset". I exercised and got ready for the day and then took Seth to work because I needed the car to get groceries. Conveniently, Chick-fil-A is located in the same shopping area as Walmart. This was Seth's first day working for Chick-fil-A (not counting orientation), so I made him pose for a photo (you can tell he's thrilled!):

I got groceries and did the rest of the chores before picking Seth up when his shift ended. It was pouring down rain when I went to pick him up. He didn't have any other shifts this week, but he has a lot of shifts the next two weeks and will definitely be getting more hours than he was getting at Roy Rogers. 

That afternoon, after Frank got home from work, we went to the church and met with the YSA stake president so Seth could be set apart as the 1st Counselor in the EQ presidency. The other counselor got set apart too. 

I got a few other tasks done that day including purchasing an eBook version of the book we're reading for book chat this month (Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky) and ordering a picture frame that I'm going to use to make a gift for Tammy. Frank was busy that evening doing maintenance for his clients.

That brings me to today (Friday, May 22nd). I went to the temple this morning to do an endowment session. The traffic was pretty bad both directions, so both trips took a lot longer than usual. I barely got to the temple in time to squeak into the 10:00 session, and then when I walked into the room I thought I had missed the 10:00 session and that this was the 10:30 session because the room was almost empty. (The 10:00 session is usually quite full, so I was expecting to sit on one of the back rows since I arrived so late). I asked the worker at the door if I had missed the 10:00 session, and she told me that all the sessions today were not very full. (I suppose that's probably because it's a holiday weekend.) Anyway, there were only 10 people in my session--it's been a long time since I've been in a session that small! 

I saw a couple of wedding parties at the temple today, and I couldn't help feeling sorry for the couples who planned late May weddings and who were probably expecting warm weather but got chilly and rainy instead! 

After I got home from the temple, I reviewed my Seminary class records and then locked the class (we have to do this at the end of each term). I also submitted all my Seminary receipts for the term to be reimbursed, which ended up taking a lot of time. Then I spent most of the rest of the day updating the budget. That took longer than usual because I didn't do it last week, so I had 2 weeks of receipts to go through. I did finish everything eventually, though.

Seth worked at Roy Rogers today. He works there tomorrow also--that will be his last shift there.

It's been raining pretty much all day and right now it is really coming down. It's supposed to keep raining all day tomorrow into Sunday, and we will have either rain or cloudy days (or both) until Thursday, according to the forecast. I think I am going to be very happy to see the sun when it comes out again! But rain is good too--we definitely need it, so I'm grateful we are getting some. 

That brings you up to date on all of our news. 

Weekly Review May 15 '26

There's been a whole lot going on this past week. I am writing this week's post from Brevard, North Carolina. I had no idea last week when I wrote that I would be here. We got word on Saturday afternoon that Frank's niece, Nicole, had just passed away. (Nicole is his sister Becky's oldest daughter.) She was only 29 years old, so of course this was a big shock. We don't know exactly why she died (her brother found her lying on her mattress and couldn't get her to wake up) but will probably have more answers when the autopsy report is available. Anyway, that is why we are here--Frank and I drove down for the funeral, which will be tomorrow. 

Saturday (May 9th) started fairly early for me because I woke up shortly before 5:00 am and couldn't go back to sleep. Frank took me to breakfast at the Silver Diner in honor of Mother's Day. I did a lot of Seminary stuff--finished preparing Monday's lesson and most of Tuesday's lesson as well, sent a few e-mails and texts, and sent an email to the stake Seminary supervisor to let her know about my decision to not teach next year. She did reply fairly quickly and it was a relief for me to know that someone at the stake level, at least, is aware of my decision. The email she sent me was really nice, too! I also did some reading in Moloka'i and called Mom. I knew she'd be busy on Mother's Day and that a lot of people would be calling her (since I have 7 siblings! 😄) so I decided to beat the rush and call her a day early. It was very nice to talk with her! Seth had a busy day, too--he was at work for a lot of the day, and when he got home he mowed the lawn. That evening we all (including Seth) went to a wedding reception for a girl in our stake. Her family lived in our ward for many years (and now lives in another ward in our stake) so we know them well. One of her younger brothers is in my Seminary class. Seth knows her pretty well because she went to the same charter school and was in the same middle school class with him; she also has been attending mission prep class and going to some of the YSA activities and meetings. (She actually received a mission call last fall but then she decided to get married instead, so she didn't go.) Anyway, it was a nice reception with a lot of people there and we ended up visiting with friends and stayed a lot longer than we intended. 

I woke up around 5:00 am again on Sunday May 10th. Before church I read scriptures, helped put food in the crock pot for dinner, did some reading in Moloka'i, and opened gifts. My boys got me a statue of a mother with children (Seth also got me a card) and Frank got me a mother's ring.

At church, we had a special RS meeting (including the YW), with treats provided by the Elder's Quorum. It was nice. We also had a RS / YW photo taken--the RS president asked Frank to take that. He had to get up on a ladder to get all of us in the photo. 

Frank attended our ward meetings but he also went to Branch Council and Sacrament Meeting for the YSA branch. We had FHE lesson after he and Seth got home from their meetings. I talked to all three of our older boys (although Tanner called after I had gone to sleep, so I didn't talk to him for very long).

I woke up at 2:30 am on Monday morning (May 11th) which wasn't awesome but I've had much worse nights! Seminary was frustrating because everyone was tired and didn't participate much. (It was a life prep lesson teaching a scripture study skill: making comparisons to find truths.) I ended the lesson with a good personal experience and I think they got something out of that, at least, but I felt kind of down a lot of the day. I took a short nap when I got home. Tanner called so I got to talk to him longer than the previous evening. I did regular chores and read through the Seminary lesson I will be teaching on Monday. (My last one!!) After Frank got home from work in the early afternoon, we picked up Genny (disabled daughter of one of the sisters I minister to) and watched her for about 3 1/2 hours. The sister I minister to wasn't feeling well, so we did this to give her a chance to get some rest. Genny seemed a little out of sorts, but it went okay. I sat on the couch with her and watched several episodes of "Leave it to Beaver". We also fed her dinner. After we took Genny home, we had FHE activity and treat. We got treats from Dairy Queen and we played a few rounds of Bananagrams. 

We also found out on Monday that the funeral for Nicole would be this Saturday, so we had to start planning this trip. We had a lot going on this week-end, so we were hoping that the funeral would be later, but this week-end worked out the best for Nicole's immediate family so of course that is more important. 

Seth had his follow-up interview with Chick-fil-A on Monday and they hired him, so that is good news. He has an orientation on Monday.

On Tuesday May 12th I woke up at 3:00 am, which is only 30 minutes early, so I was happy about that. My Seminary lesson went much better too, so I felt good about that. The topic was the first great commandment (loving God with all our heart, soul, and might). As part of the lesson, I asked them to make a quick list of ways God has shown His love for everyone or for them personally. Then I asked them to hand them in and we read all of them out loud. Everyone participated (even a few who usually don't), and there were some really thoughtful things written on their lists. I took a photo of all the papers when I got home. 

After class, Tammy and I did some planning--made a list of all the things we need to get done in the next week and divided it up between us. Then I came home and made another list of all the things I needed to get done over the next two days before we left for NC on Thursday morning. Then I got busy with Tuesday's list, which included: re-planning that week's meals (since we would be gone and Seth needed some things that he could make himself) and also planning next week's meals, getting someone to attend Seminary in my place on Friday, making treats for my Seminary class for Wednesday (I promised I would bring a treat for anyone who finished all of the semester's required reading by Wednesday), planning Monday's Seminary lesson, listening to the recent SA devotional done by Elder and Sister Stevenson (we're going to use some things from that devotional for our short lesson on the last day of Seminary), taking some things to the storage unit, checking to make sure no bills needed to be paid while we are gone, cleaning the bathrooms, and sending an email about getting our water meter replaced (because apparently it has stopped working). Somehow I managed to get all of that done, and I even squeezed in a short nap in the early afternoon too. Seth went to Chick-fil-A to fill out some paperwork and went to his classes; Frank was at the temple that evening so he got home late (but not as late as usual--he got to leave a little early). 

I didn't wake up until the alarm went off on Wednesday May 13th--that's always a big bonus for me! We had a guest teacher in Seminary. He did a good job. He is the father of one of the girls in our class and I thought it was interesting that she looked at her phone and talked to her friend through the entire lesson and didn't participate at all. She does that for us, too, but I thought she'd be motivated to behave differently for her dad--I guess not! Besides teaching a good lesson, he brought donuts, so the kids really liked that. 

Frank had a dentist appointment in the morning and Seth had one that afternoon. Seth didn't give himself as much time as he should have to get there (he had to leave his second class a little early) so he was late and they almost cancelled his appointment, but he got there in the nick of time, thankfully. 

I had another long list of things to do which included: laundry, dusting, grocery shopping (Frank came with me), finishing the lesson prep for Monday's Seminary lesson, writing a note in three birthday cards (for Seminary kids who have birthdays over the summer), contacting the missionaries to make arrangements for dinner (we were supposed to feed them on Saturday), sweeping & mopping the kitchen floor, preparing gifts for the four seniors in our Seminary class, preparing a game for Wednesday's Seminary class, and packing for our trip to NC. I did manage to get all of that done! 

That evening I had book chat and Seth had Institute. I didn't finish Moloka'i in time for book chat, but I did get about half way through it and I plan to finish reading it because it is quite good. Everyone at book chat (who have finished the book) had good things to say about it, so I am motivated to read the rest even though there were a few "spoilers" from the discussion at book chat. We talked later than normal, so I got home quite late. 

I woke up a little earlier than I needed to on Thursday May 14th, but it wasn't too bad. Frank had the day off because our plan was to leave for NC after I got back from Seminary. I exercised and showered. Right after I got out of the shower, I was very startled when I thought a dark brown bug of some kind was flying right in front of my face. I started swatting my hand at it and it moved, but not far. Then I realized that it wasn't actually a bug in front of my face, it was something in my left eye. I saw a dark brown jagged horizontal line move across my eye. Frank came & looked in my eye but couldn't see anything; I couldn't feel anything in my eye either. I realized then that it was actually a "floatie" in my eye, but a dark one instead of a clear one. I washed both of my eyes (I do that every morning anyway for my blepharitis) and after that the large brown floatie changed to small brown dots and then disappeared. Then I started noticing that I was seeing flashes of light from the outside corner of my left eye. I did a quick Google search and discovered that the symptoms I was experiencing could be associated with retinal detachment, which is an emergency situation that needs to be evaluated right away. We decided to call our doctor and we were able to talk to the doctor on call. She confirmed that my symptoms could indicate retinal detachment and said I should be seen that morning. She said I could either go to the ER or wait until their office opened at 8:00. We debated a bit, but ultimately decided to go to the ER since we had been planning to leave for NC around 8:00. At this point, we weren't sure we'd still be able to go, but we decided it would be better for me to be seen right away. The risk was that ER visits can sometimes (often) involve a very long wait, so we might end up taking more time than if we waited for the doctor's office to open at 8:00. We decided to risk it, though, and that did turn out to be the best decision. I texted Tammy about Seminary and she was (of course) totally understanding and said she'd ask one of the moms who is usually in the building to help with Seminary. I was sorry to miss Seminary since I have so few days left, but it couldn't be helped. 

At the ER, I was taken back to triage within a few minutes and was then taken directly to a room without waiting. I did have to wait a while for the doctor to come examine me, but it wasn't too long. He checked my vision, the pressure in my eye, and did an ultrasound of my eye. After the ultrasound, he said that my retina was not detached, which was good news, but didn't give us a super clear explanation about what else could be causing my symptoms. Just something that happens with age sometimes. He said I could get a follow up appointment with an eye doctor for later that day. When we explained that we had intended to leave for NC that morning to attend a funeral and asked if it was still possible to go, he said that he thought it would be okay for me to go and to follow up with our eye doctor after I got back from the trip. I was discharged and we were able to head back home around 8:00. When we got home, I ate breakfast and we got ready to go--we were able to leave the house around 9:00 am, so not a lot later than we originally planned.

The drive down to NC went smoothly and it felt shorter than usual to me although it took about the same amount of time that it usually does. I took a short nap early on. We made it to Brevard around 6:00 pm. We checked into our hotel and then went to visit with Frank's parents for a few minutes. Frank's dad had a doctor appointment and they had to leave soon for that, so we didn't stay long. After we picked up some dinner, we came back to the hotel to eat. Frank talked with his sister Dawn on the phone for a while; I was so tired that I kept falling asleep. 

We both slept well last night and both woke up around 5:00 am this morning (Friday May 15th). I know that is early, but for us, 5:00 am is sleeping in! We showered and headed down to the free breakfast buffet. After that we drove out to Dawn's house and spent the morning helping her with some preparations for the funeral. We helped create a program and then took Dawn with us to get copies of the program made and to buy some paper products for the snacks that will be served after the funeral. We also got some lunch and then took Dawn back home. We went back to our hotel and I took a very short nap (about 15 minutes) before I woke up because my stomach was hurting. Frank met Dawn and some of Becky's kids at the church to do some set up for tomorrow but I stayed here because of my stomach. Thankfully, I started feeling better after an hour or so and I feel fine now. When Frank got done at the church, we went to get some dinner. I have spent the time since dinner writing this post. 

I am still seeing occasional flashes of light in the corner of my eye (more noticable when I'm in a dark room) and I also occasionally see a faint dark floatie in my eye, but nothing as dark as the one yesterday morning. I've been kind of anxious about what might be going on with my eye, but I was texting Amy about it this afternoon and she had some issues with seeing flashes of light in one of her eyes a few years ago (but not the dark floatie). She said she did some research and came across a condition called posterior vitreous detachment, which has a lot of the same symptoms as a retinal detachment. I looked it up, and it does sound similar to what I experienced, and it also sounds like what the doctor was describing to me yesterday morning, so maybe that's what he meant even though he didn't give it a name. At any rate, after reading about it, I am feeling a lot less anxious about what's happening with my eye. I was able to get an appointment set up with our eye doctor for Tuesday (I called his office yesterday while we were driving down here) so I can talk with him about it then and I think having another exam will set my mind at ease even more. 

I guess I didn't specifically mention it, but Seth stayed home in Maryland. He had to work today and he works tomorrow too. Since we had signed up to feed the misisonaries tomorrow, we arranged with them to meet him at Roy Rogers when he gets off work tomorrow and he will buy them some food and they will eat together there. Frank has a whole bunch of meetings on Sunday that he is going to miss and I am going to miss a visit to our stake from Camille Johnson, the General RS president. There's a special devotional tomorrow afternoon at our stake center for all the women in our stake and 7 other nearby stakes. I am sad to miss it, but family comes first, of course. Tomorrow is going to be sad, but we will also see a lot of family members, so that will be nice.

I can't think of anything else that's been happening (that's quite enough, anyway, isn't it?!) so I will sign off until next week.

Weekly Review May 8 '26

This week was not as eventful as last week, but we still had quite a few things going on. I finished writing last week's post on Saturday morning. (May 2nd) Frank went to the church for a while to help set up some IT stuff for the RS activity. I went over in the early afternoon for a song practice before the activity started. For the activity, we decorated cookies using royal icing and learned about some of the faithful women in the Old Testament. (The song went with that part of the activity, and it went pretty well although I feel like we did better in practice than during the performance.) For the activity, everyone got a tiara to wear; that was kind of fun. The cookie decorating that we did was different than any kind of decorating I have ever done, and it was pretty cool, but I doubt I will ever do it again since it sounds like a lot of work to make the icing! The young adult sitting next to me really had a magic touch; her cookies looked amazing:

Mine turned out okay too:

We ended up getting Chipotle for dinner; I don't remember exactly why now. 

Sunday May 3rd was a busy day. Frank and Seth left the house around 9:00 am for their church meetings, which were held at the temple visitor's center. They had breakfast at 10:00, training / instruction meetings at 11:15, lunch at 12:30, and then the General Session of Stake Conference at 1:30. (They had snacks after the meeting, too--apparently YSAs are all about food! 😂)

Meanwhile, I read scriptures and worked on Seminary lessons. Then I went to our ward's sacrament meeting but left after taking the sacrament so that I could attend the YSA stake conference at 1:30. I met Frank there (Seth was sitting with friends). Frank was sustained, and after the meeting he was set apart. I was tired and had a hard time focusing during the meeting, but I was impressed with all the YSA speakers from what I did hear. Frank received a beautiful blessing when he was set apart; I wish I could remember the details, but I've already forgotten most of it. I just know he was blessed with things that I feel like he and our family need right now.

I briefly met the stake president and his counselors, as well as a couple of the other high council members. I was surprised to find out that the CES director for our area is also on the high council in the YSA stake. When they sustained Frank, he turned around and waved at us. Fun fact about the stake president that I didn't mention in last week's post: he was a guest on the Follow Him podcast last fall. The night that Frank got his call, he told me the stake president's name and showed me his picture and told me a little bit about him, and bells started ringing in my head. I said "Wait a minute...I think I know who he is! I think he was on the Follow Him podcast not too long ago." So I looked it up, and I was right. 

After Frank was set apart, we drove home. Seth rode with me and we talked to Jared while we drove home. After we got home we had dinner and family night lesson. Then Seth went to the church-wide broadcast for young adults (all the young adults who live in the Frederick area were invited to gather to watch at the house of one of the counselors in our stake presidency--the Frederick stake presidency, not the YSA stake presidency). Seth's friend Henry picked him up and they went together. (Henry has been at BYU for the last year, but he's home now, preparing to go on a mission in June. He is Tammy's son.) 

Unfortunately, this was another week with a lot of bad sleeping nights. I woke up just after midnight on Monday May 4th. Seminary went pretty well, though. I taught a lesson about facing challenges with faith instead of fear. It was based on the story from Numbers where the 12 Israelite spies returned from surveilling the land of Canaan and 10 of them came back fearful that they could never conquer the land, even though God told them that He would give it to them. For part of the lesson, I divided the class into three groups and each read about a different group of people--the 10 spies who were fearful, the 2 spies who had faith (Joshua & Caleb), and the rest of the Israelites, who believed the 10 spies. Then they were supposed to represent the group of people they read about while I interviewed them, as if I were doing a news report. It was kind of funny! Tammy took this photo while I was interviewing one student. (Of course I have my eyes closed!):

After I got home from Seminary, I took an hour nap. I got to talk to Scott briefly, too. When Frank got home from work, he went with me to get groceries. I finished preparing Wednesday's Seminary lesson and read through both lessons for next week but didn't have the energy to do much beyond that (and the regular chores). 

Frank started getting lots of emails as well as a phone call about YSA stuff. We are still figuring out what his schedule is going to be like but so far we know he will be speaking on the 3rd Sunday of each month and on the 2nd Sundays he has high council and stake council meetings (but this month those meetings are on the 3rd Sunday since the 2nd Sunday is Mother's Day). They didn't put him on the schedule for the speaking rotation until July, but we'll be gone in July so he won't speak until August. He will also be attending branch counsel for the YSA branch at least twice a month and attending their regular church meetings twice a month as well. I don't think I'm going to see Frank much on Sundays!

Seth had a job interview that afternoon via Zoom (with Chick-fil-a). They asked him to come back for an in-person interview on Thursday and now he has a follow up interview scheduled for Monday. Hopefully he will get a job there because they can give him more hours than he is getting at Roy Rogers. 

For family night activity we played Uno and Frank won every round but one. After we had our activity, Seth went to YSA FHE--they watched one of the Star Wars movies in honor of "May the 4th Be With You". 

We had a guest teacher for Seminary on Tuesday May 5th. It's always great to learn from a new teacher! I slept pretty well the night before, for once, but I still needed a nap after Seminary. After napping, I got all the regular chores done, planned one Seminary lesson for next week, and started painting the 2nd coat of the exterior of the dollhouse. 

For dinner, I made tacos in honor of Cinco de Mayo (plus it was "Taco Tuesday"!) Frank missed that since he was at his regular temple shift. 

On Wednesday May 6th I woke up at 2:00 am and my stomach was bothering me, but my Seminary lesson went okay. (It was a life prep lesson on overcoming obstacles to furthering education). I once again took a nap after Seminary (I've taken a nap every day this week--I've been so wiped out!!). One of Seth's classes was cancelled so he didn't have to leave for school as early as usual. I planned another Seminary lesson, did more painting on the exterior of the dollhouse, and talked to Tanner. I did some reading (just an old favorite book) and emailed my bishop to let him know my decision about Seminary next year. I tried to get an appointment to talk to him last week, but he was out of town all last week and this week too. I texted him on Sunday evening but didn't hear back from him, so I emailed him instead. I still have not received a response from him, so I'm not sure if he's getting my messages. Hopefully I will connect with him soon. It's been kind of unsettling to be in this state of limbo. 

Seth went to Institute that night; he went earlier than he usually does so that he could have dinner too. They always have a simple dinner for them, but usually Seth eats with us before he goes. 

I woke up about 2:30 am on Thursday May 7th and--you guessed it--took a 1 hour nap after I got home from Seminary. I got all the regular chores done, worked on Monday's Seminary lesson (Power Point slides, etc.--I'm not completely done preparing it yet), finished painting the exterior of the dollhouse while listening to the Follow Him podcast, and read some more. I started reading the book for book chat--Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. I tried to get a copy from the library, but still hadn't received one so on Wednesday I purchased one from Amazon and it arrived on Thursday. We have book chat this coming Wednesday so I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it by then, but I'm going to try. I've only read a few chapters but it is good so far. 

Frank had a zoom meeting for the YSA branch that evening (with the stake presidency and the branch president). I thought I'd be asleep before his meeting finished, but it was a quick meeting--nice!

Today (Friday May 8th) I went to the temple after Semianry. Thankfully, I slept fairly well last night (just a bit restless...I remember waking up briefly a few times). I did initiatories, so I wasn't worried about trying to stay awake. The traffic was bad going down, so I got there later than usual but it all worked out okay.

It was quite chilly this morning (and has been most mornings this week) but it warmed up and was pretty nice during the day. It's hard to believe it's May sometimes because it's been so cool in the mornings. We even had a frost warning on Tuesday morning.

After I got home from the temple, I got the budget caught up. Then I took a nap because I felt very sleepy even though I slept better last night. It's a good thing there's only a week and a half of Seminary left; I'm not sure I would survive if I had to do this much longer!

After my nap, Frank and I made dinner and then watched a couple of episodes of Once Upon a Time while we ate. I plan to spend the rest of the evening reading. 

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