Weekly Review June 6 '25

This week was a lot less eventful than last week, but I always manage to keep busy. 

Last Saturday morning I finished sewing the June pillow covers:

The backs are out of this strawberry print fabric:

I went to lunch with my friend Rebekah on Saturday too. Seth worked that afternoon / evening and Frank went to see a movie (the new Mission Impossible) so I had a little bit of quiet time. I can't remember what I did now except that I finished watching a movie on Netflix that I had started watching Friday night. I probably did some reading too. I had not yet received the book that we are reading for book chat (I put it on hold at the library) so I ordered an ebook version instead. I've read about a third of it so far and I'm enjoying it but need to pick up the pace if I'm going to finish it by Wednesday.

On Sunday we had church as usual except that the missionaries asked me to attend their Sunday School class (for new members / friends they are meeting with) so I did that instead of going to Gospel Doctrine (and I enjoyed it). Seth started a temple prep class last week so he went again on Sunday afternoon (it's a 6 week course). That evening was Seminary graduation. My team teacher and her son who was graduating were both out of town and one of the other boys in my class who graduated didn't come either, but the other four Seniors in my class who were graduating did come. (Including Seth.) The ceremony was nice and I was happy for my Seniors! 

These two boys are in the Spanish ward:

Seth with Melissa...she is in our ward, also:

Each of the Seminary teachers was given a picture of the temple:

On Monday morning I had my annual GYN exam and mammogram. I had to go back yesterday to get more images taken and an ultrasound. That has happened to me a couple of other times, so I'm not over the top concerned about it, but it is still a bit of a worry and I will be grateful to get the results (hopefully soon). 

On Monday afternoon I went to a teaching appointment with the Elders. That evening we went to dinner with an older couple in our ward--they wanted to celebrate Seth's graduation. Really sweet of them!! He has actually received quite a few graduation cards and gifts from people in our ward. I've been really surprised but touched by that. Some family members have also sent cards and gifts--we really appreciate that! I think he has felt very loved and knows he has a lot of support from people around him, which is so great!

I don't have anything on the calendar for Tuesday or Wednesday. I just got the regular house work done and also had quite a few conversations with Amy, Julia, and Shellie as we've been planning for our trip to Kirtland next week. I've also been listening to an audio book series a lot and I worked on a color-by-number picture. Seth drove himself to his YM activity on Tuesday evening. Frank didn't go to the temple that night because one of his clients had an IT emergency so he had to solve that problem instead. On Wednesday I cut out all the pieces for the July quilt blocks:

On Wednesday we also did our family night activity (we did the lesson part on Sunday). We continued our game of Mexican Train that we started weeks ago--we played several more rounds but we still have two rounds left. Seth was winning by far the last time we played, but this time I got really lucky so now I am ahead. A lot can change in a couple of rounds, though, so it's anybody's guess who is going to come out on top in the end. After family night activity, Seth went to Institute for the first time. He said he enjoyed it.

Seth worked yesterday and today. He also did some weeding in our yard this week. I woke up really early yesterday and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and exercised and started my day. I meant to take a nap later but never got to it so by 9:00 last night I was out! Thankfully, I slept much better last night.

Today I went to the temple as I often do on Fridays, but this time I didn't go alone. I took an older couple in our ward with me. She doesn't drive at all and he isn't able to drive that far anymore so they aren't able to get to the temple often. She had some work she wanted to get done for a family member. I signed us up for the 10:30 session so that she would have time to do the initiatory for her family member first, and then do the endowment afterwards. They got her through initiatory faster than we anticipated, though, so we were able to go to the 10:00 endowment session instead. I really enjoyed having them ride to the temple and back with me--the drive felt like it went by so much faster than usual! 

The rest of the day has been full because we had the missionaries over for dinner and I gave a ride to one of my former Seminary students this evening (about 25 minutes each way, with a quick stop at Wal-Mart too) besides updating the budget and writing this post. You can see from the photo that it was beautiful and sunny this morning but later today we got some rain and we may get some more tonight. 

Update on the trash corral removal situation: we got a letter this week saying that they are postponing the removal of the corrals until early July to give us more time to prepare (originally the corrals were going to be removed next week). Not sure how putting it off a month is going to resolve any of the problems or issues that we brought up. I guess we're just going to have to deal with it somehow. 

Seth and I are both speaking in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. I have been thinking about my talk all week and last night I started jotting down a few things but it looks like I will be preparing the whole thing tomorrow. I'm not super worried about it, but I'll be glad when that's behind me. 

Jared is singing a solo in his Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and he just sent me a recording of his last practice run. That boy can sing! 😊 It sounds amazing. He is singing an arrangement of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and Lead Kindly Light. I wish we could be there in person to hear him sing, but Jessie is going to record his performance and send it to us. 

That's all our news for this week. I'll finish up with a couple of photos of yesterday's sunrise.

Weekly Review May 30 '25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lorie helping Seth put on his medal and pins

Marching in:

Getting his diploma:

Returning to his seat:

Recessional:

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

Taking a few quick photos in the rain:

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

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

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

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

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

Opening presents:

(He liked the funny card we got him.)

Building the infinity gauntlet Lego set:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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