Weekly Review August 7 '15

We'll start off with a few flashbacks from last week. Ben and Dee shared a bunch of pictures they took on our battlefield tours as well as in New York City, so I thought I'd share a sampling of those. Although I apologize...I forgot to orient all of them so some of them are sideways:

Now moving forward. Ben's family and Jared arrived back home late Saturday. It sounds like they had a great time. They did lots of sightseeing and shopping, and they saw two plays...An American in Paris and Aladdin. Jared said he was blown away by the tech stuff they did for those plays! Jared brought chocolate back for all of us. He brought me a bag of Hershey's miniatures that are all dark chocolate (some plain, some with peanuts, some with crisped rice). I am eating them now. I LOVE dark chocolate!

On Sunday I was teaching RS and I was pleased that it went well. We were talking about service and I decided to show a Mormon message video clip that I really like and then discuss it. Really all I had to do was show the clip and ask a couple of questions,and the discussion took off! I love it when that happens.

On Monday Frank worked from home while the rest of us went to Washington DC to do some sightseeing. (Bless Dee for doing the driving! I am scared to drive down there but she did awesome!) Frank could have got the day off, but he didn't think he would be up for all the walking. And actually, he was probably right because we did a whole lot of walking. My phone said I broke my record for the most steps in one day.

It was a pretty hot day with high humidity, so not very comfortable to be outside but we survived. Of course we forgot sunscreen, so Dee and I both got pretty burned. It just so happens that Kent and his family were also visiting DC that day so we met up with them at the Washington Monument. We also visited the WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, and the White House (not inside). After that, Kent's family went on to visit the National Gallery and we went to the Museum of American History. Here are some pictures of our adventures. (Jared played with the camera for a few special effects):

(We took this one to send to Tanner.)

Seth and I actually didn't go to the White House. Seth had had just about enough walking at that point and I was pretty tired so I didn't mind staying behind with him. (Besides, I've seen the White House up close before. As a matter of fact, I've been on the tour inside. So I didn't need to see it again.) We sat on a bench near the Washington Memorial and waited for everyone to get back. There was this monument across the street from our bench that Seth was interested in because there was a flaming sword on it. So he talked me into walking across the street for a closer look:

It was something to do with WWI, if I remember correctly. Had a bunch of names of places in France written on it.

This was our view while we waited for everybody:

And back to the Korean War Memorial, we took these pictures of the whole crew together:

At the Museum of American History, Seth surprised me by being really, really interested in the Star Spangle Banner exhibit. He practically dragged me in there to see the flag (and I was totally willing to go, I should mention) and then while we were looking at it, didn't want to move until he had sung the entire first verse of the national anthem (quietly). Later in the exhibit, when I pointed out the sheet music with all four verses of the song, he refused to move on until he had (quietly) sung the other three verses! This is the kid that normally is in a big hurry and not very interested in historical things. It was kind of cool! He was also really interested in the WWII exhibit.

After the museum, we headed back home. Ben's family went back to DC the next day to go to some more museums. Originally we all planned to go with them again, but after Monday I knew Seth wouldn't make it through another day so I stayed home with him. Then Jared woke up with a bad headache, so he didn't go either. After they came home that evening we stayed up late talking. They gave us the movie Big Hero 6, which I'm sure we'll enjoy owning since we watched it the day before and everyone really liked it. They had to leave Wednesday morning, but we really enjoyed having them here! It was especially nice to spend some one on one time with Ben's family since usually we only see them at big family reunions when we are trying to see a lot of people at once.

I've spent a lot of time the rest of the week working on RS stuff that was kind of piling up. There's been a lot to do. I've also done quite a bit of reading. I finished the Astronaut Wives Club (and also watched the show based on that book, since I discovered I can watch most of the episodes online). I started reading a book Mom recommended called Empty Mansions. It's pretty fascinating. I haven't been able to get a copy of the book for book chat yet. I bought school supplies for Seth and sewed a patch on his Cub scout shirt. I got caught up on household chores too.

Jared got a job this week. He applied to be a lifeguard at the YMCA a while back and they told him they weren't hiring life guards right now. But then this week they called him back and asked if he would be interested in helping teach gymnastics classes to kids. He doesn't have to know how to do gymnastics, just needs to be able to work well with kids. He said he was interested, so they set up an interview for Wednesday morning and they hired him. He doesn't start until August 31st and he will be an assistant instructor to start out. Sounds like a lot more fun than flipping burgers!

Jared also made a little more progress with his Eagle project this week. They worked on it for their YM activity and they were able to apply all the large vinyl letters to the letter signs. It's nice to see a little progress in that direction.

Today we went and had lunch with my 2nd counselor and her husband. He was chopping wood a couple of days ago and had an accident and chopped his foot! He broke one of his toes and had to have 15 stitches! He and Frank are pretty good friends and they wanted to go to lunch but he really isn't mobile yet so we went to them instead. He has to keep his foot up all the time or it really hurts. I bet it does! Makes me shudder to think about it.

That brings you up to date on us.

Weekly Review July 31 '15

I just wrote to Tanner and discovered that there is not a lot to say about this week. Not because we didn't do anything, just because most of what we did was routine and not exciting to write about.

I do have a lot of pictures, though!

Saturday was busy because besides all the usual chores we had to do, we all got haircuts that morning. Then that evening was our ward temple night, so Frank and I went. 

Frank wasn't sure he was going to make it...his back was hurting a lot...but he went anyway and I really enjoyed it a lot more than I would have if he hadn't been there. We had a small group show up from our ward. Afterwards, we stopped for dinner with two other couples and that was fun.

Sunday Frank was hurting a lot so he only went to Sacrament Meeting. He had already asked someone else to substitute his class for him since his back had been giving him a lot of trouble all week. I think my talk went pretty well...at least, I had a number of people afterwards thank me for it, and a few even said it really helped them. So that was nice to hear. I talked longer than I should have, though. The choir sang that day also, and Jared directed us. He did a good job. We sang "Faith in Every Footstep". I did a food order that evening, so besides all my usual meetings, that made for a busy day.

I had the usual chores Monday and Tuesday and I was also trying to finish preparing my lesson for this Sunday and finish up VT changes so that I would have more time to spend with Ben's family. I did get the lesson finished up on Tuesday but not the VT changes. I got those done yesterday, though. 

I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah on Monday, which I always enjoy. She is my listening ear! On Tuesday morning I found this plant (with the note stuck in it) sitting on my doorstep:

I'm totally mystified, but that was very nice of somebody! Although it also made me feel a bit guilty because I was just whining a bit about all my responsibilities to my friend Rebekah the day before! I hope that I am serving willingly most of the time. Just sometimes I get tired! I also had a sister in the ward call me that night, just to check on me and to find out if she could do anything for me. Totally out of the blue! Which was also really nice, even though I couldn't think of anything I needed her to do for me.

Ben's family arrived here safely on Tuesday evening and the cousins tried to out talk each other. :) Seriously, it is great to see them having so much fun together. On Wednesday Frank went to work as usual but the rest of us visited Civil War battlefields. We went to the Monocacy battlefield in the morning and Antietam in the afternoon. Here's a few pictures from Monocacy:
 

We all fit in our car, so we were able to travel together which was nice. Jared did all the driving to, from, and around Antietam, so he got in about 3 hours of driving time. The drive to Antietam is through beautiful hills and quaint little towns; I loved it! Antietam itself is in a very beautiful area and I took lots of pictures. First we went to the visitor's center and watched a film about the battle. There was a small museum and a gift shop too which we checked out. On the upper level, there is a big observation room with windows all around so you can see the whole surrounding area. We listened to an intern talk all about the battle up in that room. A lot of what he said was a repeat from the film, but he did add in several interesting stories. Here are some pictures from the observation room:

After that, we went on the self guided driving tour around the battlefield. Here are all our pictures from that (It was super beautiful and I took an obnoxious amount of pictures):

We climbed a tower and got some pictures up there. Between the two rows of fences is called "Bloody Lane" because so many people died there. Sad!

At another stop, we saw this guy in a Union uniform re-enact the soldiers crossing Antietam Creek. He's holding a rifle over his head:

 This tree was actually there at the time of the battle, it was just a lot smaller then:

It was a very hot and humid day, so it got pretty uncomfortable at times, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

On Thursday morning Ben's family, with Jared in tow, left for NYC. It's been pretty quiet around here since then. I've been trying to get caught up on household chores and RS stuff. I got a lot of errands done and Seth had a play date with one of the girls his age in the ward.

Jared has sent me a few pictures and messages, and he seems to be having a great time. Dee sent me a picture of the kids too. They did some sightseeing and shopping yesterday and went to see An American in Paris last night. Jared says the play was amazing! They are doing more sightseeing and shopping today and going to see Aladdin tonight. They will be home tomorrow evening. They did get wet yesterday...a couple of big thunderstorms rolled in (we got them here too). It is a lot less humid today, though, which really helps even though it is still in the 90s. It's amazing what a difference even a small drop in humidity can make!

Frank has been busy with work all week. He went to physical therapy twice and he is doing a lot better than he was at the beginning of the week. He goes twice again next week and then they will evaluate again.

And that is it for this week!