Weekly Review April 24 '26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly Review April 17 '26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Around 6:00 pm:

Around 7:00 pm:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly Review April 10 '26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly Review April 3 '26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekly Review March 27 '26

Today is a rainy day in Maryland. I did not go to the temple today so I am getting started on this week's post earlier than usual. I spent the morning (after Seminary) updating the finances. We had yummy donuts at Seminary this morning. 😊

Going back to Saturday March 21st, it was a busy day. Frank had an MRI of his right shoulder done that morning. I got a text saying they needed help cleaning the church, so I went over and helped with that for about 30 minutes. (Frank didn't go since most cleaning tasks involve moving his shoulder in a way that is painful.) I had some quiet time after I got home from the church because Seth worked from 9:00 to 4:00 and Frank ended up needing to go do work for a client (the one that is 90 minutes away). I had a lot to do so it was actually good that I had the house to myself for hours without distractions. I finished updating finances (I started the day before but didn't have time to finish), practiced ukulele, cleaned the kitchen floor, finished preparing both of my Seminary lessons for this week, and did some work on the dollhouse. I finished sanding all the ceilings that I previously painted, did a final coat of polyurethane on the base floors, and did the first coat of polyurethane on all the other floors.

I also started working on the blog post for the previous 2 weeks, which I finished later that night, around bedtime. Meanwhile, after Frank got home and Seth got off work, we went out to eat for dinner. We went to Outback Steakhouse. I decided to try their Mock Croc drink (sprite & mango) and we had fun playing with the little crocodile that came with it:

I rarely drink soda and usually order water at restaurants, but I really like mango flavored things, so I decided to try this. It was pretty good.

On Sunday March 22nd we had a lot of the usual things (church, scriptures, FHE, listening to podcasts for me and mission prep for Seth) plus a few extra things. Seth went to a special meeting for all the YSAs in the area where Elder Soares was speaking. It was held at the stake center next to the temple. They fed them lunch after the meeting also. He was really excited to be in the same room with an apostle and he enjoyed the meeting a lot. He got back in time to take me home from choir practice--Frank had a ministering visit, so he had to leave after our church meetings were over. I also got to talk to Jared for a while that day. The weather was really nice--warm and sunny! We've had a few nice days like that this week and other days have been cold--the weather has been a real roller coaster ride, but I guess that's normal for spring.

It was raining when we got up on Monday March 23rd but it didn't rain all day. I had one of my bad nights where I woke up at 1:30 am and didn't go back to sleep. It's been a while since that's happened, though, and I'm grateful for that. I taught a lesson about Exodus 1, which focused on putting God above the pressures that come from other people / situations in the world. In spite of the fact that I was really tired and had to take a one hour nap Monday afternoon, I got a surprising amount of things done on Monday. Besides all the regular Monday chores (grocery shopping, laundry, vacuuming / sweeping), I also contacted the sisters I minister to, handled some Seminary-related messages, started reading the book Nation (for book chat), and got some more work done on the dollhouse. I sanded & applied a second coat of polyurethane to the mid and upper floors and in the evening Frank helped me glue together the dollhouse foundation. 

In this photo, the foundation has the base floor on top of it and is weighted down with books to keep it in place while the glue dries:

Mid and upper floors drying after second coat of polyurethane was applied:

On Monday we also had FHE activity and enjoyed a treat. We played several rounds of Uno Flip. Seth went to FHE for the YSA group later.

I taught a lesson about self-reliance for Seminary on Tuesday March 24th. The focus of this lesson was on increasing our faith in the Savior--as we do everything we can and rely on the Savior to help us, we can achieve self-reliance. I felt good about that lesson even though not all the youth participated as much as I would have liked them to. I didn't get as much done on Tuesday as I did on Monday. I did get all the regular Tuesday chores done (cleaned bathrooms and planned the next week's meals) and I also sanded & applied a second coat of polyurethane to the tower upper floor, because I forgot to do that on Monday. I read through my 2 Seminary lessons for next week so that I could start thinking about them, talked to Tanner, and I did some more reading in Nation. It's a very interesting book and I am enjoying it a lot. I was also contacted by a friend from church that day--she had an appointment for the following day with one of the places that does free taxes (not with VITA--I think it was the AARP) but she was in the hospital and didn't think she was going to get discharged in time to make her appointment. She couldn't reschedule her appointment because this place was booked all the way through April 15th. She was really worried about getting her taxes filed and wondered if I had any ideas of what she could do. I told her I thought that under the circumstances, I could probably get permission to do her taxes through VITA without her being present. I e-mailed the site manager and explained the situation and he said that absolutely that would work. So I let her know, and she was extremely relieved. She contacted me this morning to let me know that she is out of the hospital and I will meet with her tomorrow to fill out her intake form and get all her tax documents. (She has cellulitis in her legs, so walking is really hard for her so it is still better if she doesn't have to come to VITA to get her taxes done. I will get all her info and take it with me to VITA on Wednesday, prepare her return, get it reviewed, and then take her the final forms that she needs to sign.) I am really happy that I am able to help her in this way. 

Seth had a pre-op appointment with our Primary care doctor that day. He still has to get some blood work done, which he is planning to do on Monday. His surgery is on Wednesday, April 8th, but we don't know what time yet. Frank did his usual temple shift on Tuesday.

We had a guest teacher for Seminary on Wednesday March 25th. It is always fun to have guest teachers because I learn so much from seeing different teaching styles. I think the youth really enjoy the change of pace also. Plus, he brought chocolate milk and cookies so they were happy about that! I did my usual VITA shift and it wasn't crazy like last week--I actually completed 4 returns and got home around 1:30. I removed the weights and the tape from the dollhouse foundation and it didn't fall apart and looks good 😁

I also sanded & did a final coat of polyurethane on the floors, but apparently I didn't take a photo when I was done. (You can't really tell anyway...they look the same as they did after the 2nd coat! 😅)

After some cold days on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday was starting to warm up a little (50s), so Frank and I went on a long walk. The wind was blowing in our faces one way, which made it feel pretty chilly, but the wind was at our backs walking home, so that was more pleasant. 

Frank got the results of his MRI on Wednesday also. He has a linear tear in the posterior glenoid labrum. (Yeah, I don't know exactly what that means, either! 😂) He also has a large cyst in the joint. Our primary care doctor wants him to go to a different surgeon for a 2nd opinion, but he will likely need to have PT for both shoulders. They are both still causing him quite a bit of pain.

Seth went to Institute on Wednesday evening, as usual.

Yesterday (Thursday March 26th) was very warm (got up to 80 degrees!) It didn't feel like a very productive day to me. I did get all the regular chores done (grocery shopping, vacuuming, laundry) and painted one small part for the dollhouse. I've been meaning to sand all the pieces I painted before I went to Utah, but I just haven't gotten to that this week. I think once those pieces are sanded, I will be ready to start assembling the body of the house. Anyway, I did some more reading yesterday, planned part of one of my Seminary lessons for next week, and made dinner for a friend & took it to her. I visited with her for a while too. After I got home and ate dinner, Frank and I went on a short walk. It was getting late and his shoulders were hurting, so we didn't go as far as we usually do. It is so nice to hear birds singing again and to see rabbits scampering about. Also, the grass is getting really green and a lot of trees are starting to bud and / or bloom. I took this photo of our house on Saturday to show how green the grass is becoming:

Seth is working today until 3:00 (he went in at 11:00). He also works tomorrow--we're happy that he got two shifts this week instead of just one, which is what he's been getting lately. He really needs to find another job this summer where he can work more hours. 

Frank got a pneumonia shot and a shingles shot this morning so I expect that he will not be feeling well by tonight and will probably feel kind of sick the next couple of days. Much better than actually getting pneumonia or shingles, though! 

I still have a lot to do today--Seminary lesson prepartions, in particular, since I have only planned part of one lesson. If I get those done, then I will do some sanding of dollhouse pieces as well. It's early afternoon so I do have some time to get things done.

It has stopped raining since I started writing this post. It was in the 60s this morning, but the temperature has actually dropped to 49 degrees now. It's going to start warming up again on Sunday, though, and we'll have a few really warm days early next week. The roller coaster ride continues!

That's all I have to report this week.

Weekly Reviews March 13 and 20 '26

I have two weeks to cover, so this post will be longer than usual, but I'm going to make a heroic effort not to go into too much detail. If you know me well, you know that is going to be a challenge for me!

My last post was from Friday, March 6th. That evening, our ward had a talent show but we decided we were too tired to go. Instead, we got some take out food and Frank & I watched some episodes of Once Upon a Time. I also finished preparing both of my Seminary lessons for the next week.

On Saturday March 7th, Frank and I ran a bunch of errands in the morning. This included purchasing another folding table and a file for the dollhouse project. The file was helpful and I was able to finish squaring the corners of all the windows, doors, and stairway openings. They still aren't as well done as I think they should be, but I think they will be good enough. Besides that, I also started painting some of the dollhouse pieces that day. Having another table really helps--I use one table for my work surface and the other table to spread out all the pieces that are drying. 

There was a baptism that day that Frank and I attended for a woman named Lori. Her young adult son was baptized last fall; she started attending church and meeting with the missionaries a few months ago. It was very sweet to listen to her share her story and her testimony at the end of the baptism service. This was the 8th baptism we've had in our ward in the last 14 months, and there was a 9th baptism last Saturday (we missed that one because I was on a plane on my way home and Frank was on his way to pick me up from the airport). It's been very exciting to see so much growth in the last year! 

Besides those things, we also talked to Jared for a little while, watched some more Once Upon a Time, and I practiced the ukulele and cleaned the kitchen floor.

Sunday March 8th was quite busy and required some juggling to make sure everyone had a car or a way to get to the right place at the right time. Besides regular church meetings for all of us, I had choir practice after church, Frank had an IT meeting with some of the stake leaders at one of the other church buildings in our stake (about 30 minutes away), Seth had mission prep, I had a RS broadcast / testimony meeting at the church, and Frank had to set up the IT stuff for the RS broadcast. I stayed after choir practice until Seth finished his church meetings so that he could give me a ride home. (I listened to the Follow Him podcast while I waited). Frank had taken the other car to his IT meeting and he had to go straight from that meeting to our church to set up the IT stuff for the RS broadcast. Seth gave me a ride to the RS broadcast so that he could take the car to mission prep. When he dropped me off, he stayed for a few minutes to help Frank with the set up. Frank stayed out in the foyer during the RS broadcast / testimony meeting (he needed to be there in case there were any issues with the technology stuff) and when it was over, we came home together. The broadcast was to commemorate the RS birthday, and the talks from the General RS presidency members and from Elder Cook were all beautiful! 

On Monday March 9th, I taught a life prep lesson focusing on the importance of continuing both secular and spiritual learning / education after high school. Seth came with me to Seminary to talk about his experience in Institute for the last (almost) year. He also went grocery shopping with me since I do that right after Seminary. After we got home, I got the rest of the regular Monday chores done. I also prepared one of my Seminary lessons for the next week and reviewed the lesson for the next day. The dollhouse pieces I painted on Saturday were dry, so I turned them over and painted the other side. 

The weather that day was very nice--unseasonably warm--so for family night activity we went on a walk and we got Rita's for treat. 

Tuesday March 10th was also very warm. I taught another life prep lesson that morning--this one was on the importance of self-reliance in Heavenly Father's plan. It went really well. The rest of the day I was very busy getting the regular Tuesday chores done as well as packing for my trip to Utah. I also did a little bit of  preparation for my second lesson for the following week, but I didn't get much done on that. 

I still needed to get up at 3:30 am on Wednesday March 11th even though I wasn't going to Seminary because I had a really early flight. Unfortunately, I woke up at 1:30 and was not able to go back to sleep. The flight to Utah went well, though. I didn't sleep (I never sleep well on planes) but I watched some episodes of a new show I've been watching while running (A Man on the Inside) and part of one of the Downton Abbey movies. I also spent the last part of the flight talking to the couple who were sitting next to me and we discovered that we know a lot of the same people. (Not incredibly surprising since they are also members of the church and live in Maryland, but it was still fun to find that out. The wife is actually the sister of a guy who used to live in our stake.) After we got off the plane, we used the "relatives around me" feature of Family Search and discovered that we are also distantly related. I'm related to the husband through Mom's line and to the wife through Dad's line. 

Amy picked me up from the airport and we went to Mom's house for a short while. I ate a sandwich and got to see Scott a little bit (he was working from home) as well as Mom and Hans. Then I went with Amy to see Jeremy dance at the Marriott Center (as part of Dancesport). He and his dance partner competed in the Waltz and the Foxtrot. It was fun to watch them as well as all the other dancers. There were competitions for the Polka and the Swing as well. I don't know much about dancing, but Amy and I were pretty successful at picking out the couples that were doing the best. 

Afterwards, we got to meet Jeremy's dance partner (and girlfriend), Kayla. 

We took the scenic route back to Mom's house, driving by the new Provo temple (under construction), our old house in Orem, and the new Lindon temple (newly finished...the open house started that day). We also made stops at Wal-Mart and at Deseret Book. 

The Lindon Temple actually has two spires, but from the front you can only see one of them. 

When we got back to Mom's house, Tanner had arrived home. His girlfriend, Linsey, came over so I got to meet her. She seems very nice! We had a fun evening visiting with Tanner & Linsey, Mom, Hans, Jeremy & Kayla, and Tim & Rachelle. Then when we went to bed, Amy & I talked until even later so I ended up being up for over 24 hours (remember, I woke up at 1:30 am, Eastern time zone). 

Meanwhile, back at home Frank went to the doctor to get his shoulders checked. The doctor gave him cortisone shots in both shoulders, gave him an order to get an MRI of his right shoulder, told him to take Ibuprofen for two weeks, and said he will need physical therapy after that. The corisone shots are helping a little bit, but he is still in quite a bit of pain, unfortunately. Seth went with the YSA missionaries to an appointment and he also went to Institute. It was still really warm--88 degrees that day!--but that evening they got very heavy rain and were under a tornado watch for a while, and the next day the temperatures had dropped and it was windy and they got a wintry mix. Crazy spring weather!

I woke up at 5:15 am on Thursday, March 12th which was kind of frustrating since I didn't need to be up early. Amy got up early to go to more of Jeremy's dance competition. I started working on Mom's taxes and was able to track down all the documents needed and got all of them entered into the tax software except for one 1099-R. We had to call her financial advisor to get a copy of that (which we didn't receive until Friday). Scott was working from home again and while he was on his lunch break he took me to get some lunch at a place called Slim Chickens. It was quite yummy. That evening, Shellie came to visit and we talked until pretty late. Scott said that we all looked exactly the same from the back, so we took a photo:

And Mom looks a lot like us from the back too:

We did take some photos from the front as well!:

Tanner took me to breakfast on Friday, March 13th. We went to a place called Hruska's Kolaches. Kolaches are these pastry things that are a lot like Danishes. Some of them are sweet and some are savory. I got a Monte Cristo, which was mostly savory (eggs, turkey, ham, swiss cheese) but also had some raspberry jam in it. We got the kolaches to take home but when we got back to Tanner's car, a bunch of warning lights came on including his check engine light. He had just had his car fixed the previous week for the same problem and the place he had it fixed was right around the corner from where we were, so he called them and they said to bring it back. He had to leave it there, so Amy came to pick us up and we ate our kolaches while we were waiting to be picked up. 

We visited with Mom the rest of the morning and then Amy & I met our friend Paula for lunch. Since I had eaten breakfast pretty late, I wasn't very hungry, but I got some food to eat later and I enjoyed visiting with Paula. After we got back from lunch, we finally got the last document we needed to complete Mom's tax return so we got that done, just in the nick of time. Amy's flight back to Texas was that evening. Scott and I drove her to the airport and then Scott took me to get some ice cream. When we got back to Mom's house, Hans had made some mangos and sticky rice, so I ate some of that (it was really good!) and also ate my food that I purchased at lunch time--some soup and a roll. We all (including Tanner and Scott) watched some episodes of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune with Mom. Then I said my good byes to Mom and Hans (they weren't sure they would be up before I left the next morning) and watched Tanner and Scott play some Guitar Hero before going to bed. 

I had to be up early on Saturday March 14th for another early flight. Scott took me to the airport. Tanner also got up to give me a hug goodbye and Hans was up too so I got to see everyone except for Mom. Once again, I did not sleep on the flight home, but I watched some more of A Man on the Inside and then I did some puzzles. The couple sitting next to me were friendly so I talked to them a little bit too. Frank picked me up from the airport and by the time we got home, Seth had arrived home from work. I unpacked and started some laundry going and then we went out to get some dinner. After we got back, I finished the laundry and watched the rest of the Downton Abbey movie I started watching on the flight to Utah (for some reason my download had expired so I wasn't able to watch it on the flight home, which was kind of annoying). I also watched the last Downton Abbey movie. I enjoyed both of them. It was good to be home again. I loved seeing my family in Utah, but I missed Frank and Seth.

Boarding the plane home:

I spent Sunday (the 15th) morning reading scriptures and listening to the Follow Him podcast. We went to church, but Frank wasn't feeling well (his shoulders were really hurting and he was also feeling really nauseated) so I took him home about half way through sacrament meeting. I went back for the second hour. There was no choir practice, so I came right home after Sunday School. Frank was feeling a little better after a chance to lie down for a while and getting something to eat. Sometimes the medicine he takes makes him feel sick to his stomach. I reviewed my Seminary lesson for Monday and got dinner ready. A friend at church had been talking to Frank about wanting some old computer equipment to experiment with and Frank had some of the things he wanted, so he came by that evening to pick those up. Seth went to mission prep that evening and Frank and I went to bed because we were exhausted. I was worried that the time zone switch and my crazy schedule while on my trip would really mess up my sleeping schedule, but thankfully I slept well all week! 

On Monday March 16th I taught a lesson about Joseph of Egypt reuniting with his brothers (the focus of the lesson was on forgiveness). That is one of my all time favorite stories in the scriptures, so I enjoyed teaching about it. UMD was on spring break this week so Frank had Monday and Tuesday off work. There were severe storms with a high chance of tornadoes predicted for that afternoon so Seth's classes were cancelled and Frederick County Public Schools closed 3 hours early. We did get some heavy rain and wind for a little while, but no tornadoes (thankfully!) and the storm didn't even last that long. I got the regular Monday chores done and then spent most of the day preparing Tuesday's Seminary lesson because I really hadn't done much to prepare before Monday. It was an Assess Your Learning lesson and the material in the lesson manual didn't fit very well with what we had actually done the last 4 weeks, so I had to come up with my own material and it took me a while to figure everything out. Seth went to YSA FHE that evening but we had our own FHE before he left, including playing some rounds of Aye, Aye Nephi. Seth won every round except for one (I won that round). 

The calm before the storm (and flowers are starting to bloom!):

My Seminary lesson on Tuesday March 17th went a lot better than I anticipated, which was nice. One of the girls in the class (Tammy's daughter) brought breakfast in honor of St. Patrick's Day--fruit "rainbows" and green pancakes with whipped cream. I didn't actually get to eat any of it since I was teaching, but it looked really cute and it was nice for the youth to have something to eat while they worked on some of the activities I had prepared for them to do. That really contributed to a more relaxed and happy atmosphere.

It was much colder (below freezing that morning) and all my car doors were frozen shut. Frank was home from work again but he did do his temple shift so he left in the late afternoon. Seth had a midterm for his art class. I kept busy completing the regular Tuesday chores and working on the dollhouse project. I painted the bottom side of the top and middle floors (which will be ceilings for the first and second floors), applied the first coat of a protective finish to the base floors (the bottom of those floors don't need to be painted because they won't show), and painted the upper side of the porch floor (the bottom side of the porch floor also won't show so it doesn't need to be painted). All the painting I am doing now is the first coat and most of it will be sanded off, so it isn't supposed to be thick and it doesn't look very nice.

Wednesday March 18th was a busy day with Seminary, VITA, and book chat. I also planned one Seminary lesson (after VITA and before book chat). We were really busy at VITA and I had a little bit of a frustrating day because the first tax return I prepared took nearly 3 hours! It really wasn't that complicated; it took so long mainly because the taxpayer didn't speak really great English and I don't speak Spanish, so it was hard for her to understand what information I was actually asking for. She was injured at work and had received some worker's compensation but didn't have a tax form for that so I was trying to get more information about that to see if I was going to be able to file her taxes even though I didn't have a form for that. She kept giving me more information about her injury and showing me pictures and everything! I think I knew her whole life story by the time I finally finished her taxes, but thankfully I was able to get them done. She did not mind that it took a long time--she said "I still don't have a job so I have all day"--she just didn't realize that I  didn't have all day. 😂I hope I don't sound too calloused and impatient--I actually felt a lot of sympathy for this lady who has a very difficult life (injued at work, lost her job, no money, no family here, sick mother back home in Colombia). I just felt bad that it took me so long to get one tax return done, especially since we were very busy and a lot of people were waiting. After I got that return done, I was able to finish two more before going home--those went a lot quicker. I got home around 2:00, which is earlier than I have been home most days. I needed some down time to regroup when I got home--looking at the pictures of Emily's new baby did the trick. He's so cute!! 😇

At book chat, we discussed The Daughter of Time and ate strawberry shortcake. Yum! Now we are reading Nation by Terry Pratchett. I already have a copy of the book, but I haven't started reading it yet.

On Thursday March 19th I kept busy with the regular chores, planning another Seminary lesson, and working a little bit on the dollhouse. I put a second coat of protective finish on the base floors and sanded most of the ceiling pieces. I also set up two little Easter trees--I ordered them before going to Utah and they arrived while I was gone. 

After dinner, we all went to see a movie called Project Hail Mary. It is based on a book that Seth and I have read and I knew Frank would enjoy it too since it is science fiction. I feel bad that I usually don't want to go to movies that Frank wants to see, so I suggested that we all go to see this one together. We all enjoyed it.

There was no school or Seminary on Friday March 20th. I enjoyed sleeping later although I was still awake by 6:00. I went to the temple to do an endowment session and loved being back at the temple, although I got sleepy. The flowers are starting to grow again and the grounds look really pretty.

After I got home from the temple, I had lunch and then worked on the budget until it was time to prepare dinner. We had the missionaries over for dinner. After dinner, I went to Seth's former high school to see the musical Frozen. One of the boys in my Seminary class played in the pit orchestra. (He plays the saxophone). Frank and Seth didn't want to go, but Tammy and her kids were there too and we sat together. The play was very well done (I was impressed with the quality of the singing) and the audience was large and very enthusiastic, which made it fun. There were a lot of little girls there dressed up as Elsa or Anna and there was also a large high school crowd that seemed to be having a ball. They cheered really loud for many of the musical numbers and for some of the characters like Olaf and Sven. When Hans reveals near the end of the play that he actually doesn't love Anna, they all gasped audibly. It was really funny. 😆

After a few cold days earlier this week, the weather is starting to warm up again and it is starting to feel more like spring. Seth even had to mow the lawn for the first time since last fall. We've had quite a bit of rain and the grass is turning really green again. It is nice to see the world coming to life again! 

It's now nearly bedtime on Saturday, so I will wrap up (and write about what we did today in next week's post).