Andrew got home from work back east and after settling in for a few days he became a Mr. Mom and Lindsay's caregiver for most of the month. Lindsay had an umbillical hernia repair, a tummy tuck from having such large babies, and a breast reduction. I watched the kids after I got home from my temple service until he brought her home. She looked great, but was pretty sore, which is to be expected. I also got to help out with the kids when Andrew took Lindsay in for her check-up, but he pretty much handled it all on his own. He did have some help with meals a bit which was nice as well. Titan and Eloise were good to help Andrew with the little ones and Lindsay was good to follow the doctors orders.
I took the opportunity to get with my girlfriends for a night out. Kathy Bullen, Teresa Maughan, Becky Olsen and I met at Firehouse Pizza for dinner and to visit and catch up, and then we went to see the Four Seasons Theaters production of "Tuck Everlasting" at Sky View High School. They did a great job and the set design was amazing! It was a great way to get out.
I also joined up with some of the gals in our neighborhood for lunch at Even Stevens. This is only the second time I've been there to eat, but It was pretty tasty. We all had a great visit as well.
The Utah State Men's Basketball team played in the Mountain West Conference in Las Vegas, NV and ended up making the history books by winning the tournament with a great comeback play by Sam Merrill. This put them in the NCAA Conference play-offs. They won this tournament last year as well, but lost in the first game of the NCAA play-offs and were ousted. Way to go Aggies!! We also had two of our players, Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta were also named MVP's of the tournament. This team was expected to go farther than last year.
Our hopes were high until it was announced that the rest of the NCAA sports season would be canceled due to a big virus outbreak that occurred first in China and has been spreading to other countries quite fast. A lot of people in China have already died from this Coronavirus or COVID-19.
On the news we were informed that China, Great Britain, and Italy has been dealing with the Coronavirus or COVID19. A lot of people have been infected with it and some have died. Well, it showed up on a cruise ship and the people on the ship had to be quarantined for 3 weeks. Then the Seattle, WA area started having people get it, (It killed some people in a care facility), as well as people in New York and California. Then we heard on the news that a Utah Jazz basketball player, Rudy Gobert found out that he tested positive with the virus while the team was warming up for their game against the Oklahoma Thunder NBA team on their court. Donovan Mitchell who is also on the Utah Jazz team also ended up testing positive a few days later.
Below is from an article that was on the internet:
Rudy Gobert nearly played the day he tested positive for coronavirus
According to a statement from the Utah Jazz, Gobert — who is unnamed in the statement — had tested negative for influenza, strep throat and an upper respiratory infection after feeling symptoms.
Those symptoms reportedly diminished over the course of Wednesday, but the decision was still made to test for COVID-19. Gobert tested positive right before tip-off, prompting a scramble to postpone the game despite players and fans being present at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Gobert never stepped foot inside the arena, though there’s no telling how long the virus has been in his system. Jazz and Thunder players were quarantined in response to the Gobert news
The NBA season got put on hold for a month. Later though, with it spreading so fast they shut down the rest of the season games and all other sport events and gatherings.
Luckily Jason and Danica got to go to the last Jazz home game of the season before all of this blew up.
Our Governor, Gary Herbert, cautioned about going to places with large groups of more than 50 people. He also issued a soft closure for the schools from Mar. 17- Apr. 1. Our School District had Spring Break Apr. 2-6. All high school athletics were put to a halt as well.
Our prophet, Russell M. Nelson, sent out a notice to us that we shouldn't hold regular Sacrament Meetings, and that we should start having church held at home or in smaller groups to adhere to the guidelines put out by the government and state leaders.
I had planned on doing a dinner with those who could come for St. Patrick's Day on Sun. the 15th a couple of days before the 17th.
Where we could still get together in groups less than 50 I got busy and made some cornbread, bread, and pies for our St. Patrick's Day dinner.
We had the Mallory's, Hassell's, and Andrew's family over for dinner and after we ate we held our first family church meeting together in our home. It went over well, and it was pretty special to see Dale and Jaxson prepare the Sacrament area. Amie led the opening song, Kennnlyn gave the opening prayer and then Dale read the letter he'd gotten from the First Presidency on how we should conduct Sacrament Meeting in our home. We sang the Sacrament song w/Amie leading again, and then Andrew and Matt blessed it and Jaxson passed it. The kids were really quite reverent during all of this.
Then we had a 10-15 min. gospel discussion where we talked about the importance of the sacrament and the Atonement and Jason said our closing prayer.
After we made cards to give to Grandma Hansen because where she's at a care facility, they aren't allowing any visitors, so we wanted to let her know that we love her and are thinking of her. The whole day had a good feeling. It's pretty cool that last year the church had implemented the Come Follow Me program after they changed church to two hours. We already have been doing a lesson in our homes on Sunday so this wasn't too much of a big change for us except being able to partake of the sacrament. Pretty awesome how this has worked out.
We also got notice for the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that our temple would be closed until further notice. This is something that hasn't happened since Wilford Woodruff was the Prophet in the 1800's. I guess you could call me blessed to have been able to serve in the temple for two weeks this month before it closed.
By the end of the month all of the temples across the world were closed, and missionaries serving missions outside of the USA went home. My brother Larry, and his wife Glee came home from their Hungary/Romania mission after being out 4 months. Some missionaries with certain health issues serving in the US were also sent home to be with their families. All those who came home and hadn't been out at least 21 months had the option to go back out to finish their mission or be reassigned to another area after the Corona Pandemic was over, except the Sr. missionaries.
Then, on top of all of this being thrown at us Dale and I were lying in bed around 7:20 am thinking it was time to get out and get ready for the day and all of the sudden we felt the bed rock and shake! We felt an earthquake!! We turned on the TV and sure enough, Utah had experienced a 5.7 magnitude earthquake with Magna being where the epicenter was. We just felt the aftershock.
We called Garrett and Zandra and Danica and Jason who live in the South Weber/Ogden area to see if they were affected by it. They were a bit shook up when they realized what it was and said that it was indeed felt. They felt a few aftershocks as well. Pretty crazy!!
The news said that this was the strongest earthquake since the 1992 St. George earthquake, the first major earthquake to occur with the Salt Lake Valley since the city was founded, and the first earthquake of similar magnitude to occur near Salt Lake City since 1962, when a 5.0 earthquake struck about 80 min. north-northeast near Richmond, Utah. By the end of the month there had been 678 aftershocks from the Magna earthquake.
Luckily everyone was home because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the Salt Lake City Airport was also emptier than usual at the time of the earthquake because flights were being suspended to certain airports. Hidden blessings and tender mercies in my eyes because there was damage, but nothing seriously major and no deaths.
With the Coronavirus going on I'm pretty sure that the people could of cared less how close they were to each other, they were just worried about each other.
Soon pretty much all of the USA started shutting down. Hospitals stayed open which was definitely necessary, but Doctor and Dentist offices were closed except for emergencies or follow-up visits that couldn't be done via Teledoc (a video chat program).
This put Dr. Nathan Hansen's Foot and Ankle Clinic on hold in Washington, and caused major concern for him where he was just getting his practice starting to do well. He's getting creative in how to get the word out that's there's a new Doctor in town by early on doing a drawing for a free orthotics fitting and an interview about himself and why he chose to be a Podiatrist with Healthy Legs and Feet via You Tube.
All schools, colleges, and universities in the USA eventually either shut down or were put on a soft closure.
Teachers were asked to do a school session via what the teachers put together for the kids and parents picked up or via the internet that the kids could learn from. They also were asked to keep doing their reading and that testing would be put on hold until the schools opened up again. So kid's started being home schooled and college and university courses were taught online.
Some parents got pretty creative, but all were glad for the help they got from the schools.
Matt still sends out his daily reminders to be kind to others as part of his school challenge to the kids as well as follows up with the kids he's been working with as a school counselor for the Elementary kids in two schools, the teacher aids help pass out teacher packets or help teachers as needed, the lunch ladies still prepare and put togethers sack lunches and a breakfast for the next day for the kids and the bus drivers go on their routes daily to provide sack lunches and a breakfast for those that want it for all school age kids with school aids helping to distribute them to the kids at the bus stops.
The District pulled together and made the best of it. Teachers and those that can, work from home as much as possible. Dale's office is still open, and he's still going into work daily, but others have been able to work from home. No one that is willing to continue working has lost their job so Dale needs to be able to provide them all with a paycheck. We've been blessed.
The comments below were sent out to the District Office from people that posted comments on their website:
With all venues closed that hosted any large events the Cache Valley Center for the Arts cancelled all of their upcoming shows that they had lined up until June just to be safe. So my ushering opportunities came to a halt as well. This also made me a bit sad because we had purchased tickets to take Jaxson to Air Play at the Eccles for his birthday, but it never happened.
In agreement with the IRS, the government delayed the filing day for income tax filings to be completed July 15th instead of April 15th.
More states started having people be affected by COVID19 and eventually it hit Utah and then our valley. The first few cases were travel related and then we started getting community related cases.
Social distancing of 6ft. apart was put in place as well as in stores. Our local Sam's Club and Smith's Food and Drug stores and other places started creating lines with 6ft. tape marks outside and at the check out lines and only allowing so many people in at a time.
The stores and eating establishments were closed unless they could do store pick-up at the door via online shopping and take-out or delivery orders for eating places. Downtown was looking pretty bare at times with parking lots into stores empty, and cars lined up at take-out places.
Salt Lake shut down first and downtown looked like a ghost town. Pretty bizarre what a tiny virus can do to a nation, but we're not letting that stop us. We're all finding a way to move forward as best we can.
The government closed boarders from other people coming in and those flying in from other states had to go through a virus check at the airport before entering the airport terminals.
The amount of people infected in towns started to rise, so they said that we could only be among groups of less than 10, and by the end of the month they said use your best judgement that number due to how it was spreading. People were asked to wear masks when out in public. The streets aren't as busy and in Salt Lake downtown looks almost like a ghost town at times. Pretty crazy, but the people are being pretty good in our area.
We get daily news briefs from Pres. Trump or someone in the White House as well as statewide on the news and locally via the internet.
The numbers changed daily and they gave us as much information as they can in how we can be safe. We just need all the people to adhere to the government, state and local guidance they ask of us.
With Dale at work and me home nothings changed too much for us. We're just careful when we go out to use precaution with distancing, not touching our face, and washing our hands. I tried making some Butter Chicken in the Insta Pot and it was SO GOOD!! It took half the time to make it too. We'll probably be having this a bit more. That's one good thing that came from the stay at home issue.
I also pulled out the wheat grinder that we got as a wedding gift we got 38 years ago and ground some wheat and oats and started making more bread. I've shared it with neighbors and kids in the Married Student Ward where Dale's serving as Bishop. Each loaf gets better, I'm relearning the art of making bread, another good thing coming from staying at home.
I've also made the corner by our big sliding glass door heading out to the back porch be my daily spot where I work on the computer putting together my blogs into a yearly book or working on the blog. I got behind, so this has slowed me down enough that I'm starting to not be as stressed about how much I haven't gotten done on my book project. Another good thing that has come from the stay at home order.
The views have been beautiful amid snow, wind, rain, sun, and having it cold outside. We've had some pretty bizarre weather going on this month. It got warm enough to work out in the flower beds and get the ones around the house ready for spring and summer, and then that same week we woke up to a snow covered grass for two days that was gone about 2 hours later and another day woke up to around 1 1/2 inches of snow with the sun shining, but still cold.
Dale's got in a few projects as well. He got the crack we've had for quite some time above our sliding glass door going out to the porch patched and ready to paint after a few tries, as well as got busy and made a Christmas tradition gift made so that we can give it to one of the kids for Christmas this year.
With all of America pretty much shutting down, there's been a lot of people that have been laid off or put on furlough status in their jobs. Disneyland, Sea World, Universal Studios, all Broadway shows, airports canceling foreign flights etc. there's a lot of people wondering how they're going to pay their rent, or provide for their needs because we have no idea how long this will last.
The Government came up with a Relief Bill that will provide the people with a stimulus check with the amount depending on their income and how many dependents they claimed on last years income tax to help provide some help. I guess every little bit helps, even if it gets you through a month. Banks have worked with people on their loans, and landlords are trying to work with their tenants so they can make it through this. Businesses are coming up with ways to make more face masks and ventilators for the healthcare industry so they can help more people that are affected by the virus, truckers are working overtime trying to keep up with the supply demand for the grocery stores, online places are hiring more people with more people shopping online. It's nice to see those that can, stepping it up and people looking out for those that are making it easier for the laymen. People are making sack lunches and handing them out to truck drivers at rest stops, their making homemade medical grade masks for healthcare workers, and trying to support the restaurants take-out or delivery options. This is heartwarming to see and hear about.
Where Nate lives in Washington state and we live in Utah he wrote up this little blurb about what he's been up to this month:
I did a quick trip to Zion's National Park in St. George, to climb with my friend, Spencer. We got on a big route called Talloween, the hardest I have done. Beautiful climb and great to climb with Spence again.
The next weekend I went skiing with his friend, Diana, to Whistler, it was bitter cold. They shut down
Saturday night due to the Covid19 so we headed to Baker Mountain and skied Sunday, and found out that they also closed down that night due to the virus.
The next weekend I made another attempt at climbing Dragontail, which I tried last year, but it ended up
the same way with there being no ice preventing a summit.
My office is basically shut down except for a few appointments so I have been staying local to be responsible and socially distance. The whole national Forest and all the parks are closed.
Social distancing
activities have included paddle boarding, sailing, biking, Netflix, running, crab and oyster feast, parking lot drinks with my boys because everything is closed. Just trying to stay sain. Hope this doesn't last long but Seattle is scheduled to stay closed
until May 4th at the earliest.
It sounds like he's making the most of his time and still getting outside. I know he has a few races coming up so staying in shape is critical.
Earlier in the month, the Mallory's invited us over to their house for dinner and for "church" at their house. We all were able to partake of the sacrament and then we all shared in on the gospel topic and lesson that Amie headed. What a joy it is to see that this virus hasn't stopped us from building our relationship with our Heavenly Father or each other.
They've been making the most of home schooling and to make it have a bit of variety Amie's added in arts and crafts, P. E., and Music to the day, she's also added Mazin to the classroom so he doesn't feel left out.
She's had to probably work the hardest with Langston because he's in the school's immersion program and has been learning everything in French. Who knows, maybe by the end of all this she'll know beginning French as well.
It's working, but the kids miss seeing their friends at school.
They used their art day to create some fun sidewalk chalk pictures for people to enjoy while walking by on the sidewalk. Pretty creative, huh?
Jaxson celebrated his 14th birthday by having his friends drive by in their car and honking, waving, leaving a gift on the sidewalk, throwing a gift out the window for him to catch, or people holding up signs. He had his Sunday School teacher call him and sing Happy Birthday to him in his Opera voice. They ate take-out Costa Vida, and played games. I think this is one that he'll remember because he'll probably never have one quite like it.
Happy Birthday Jaxson!!
Andrew and Lindsay celebrated World Celebral Palsy Day for Nora. Her determination shows that she's not letting this hold her back much. What a blessing it is to have her in our family. We have to be sure this little cutie stays healthy, I'd hate to see her have to fight the virus as well.
During one of their school craft sessions Titan tried to give Arwyn a haircut. She was all for it too, but it appears that he had to follow her around the room a bit to finish the job becuase you could see a trail of hair.
It's a good thing she's got such a cute little face and can pull off having her hair shaved. She did tell Titan that she wanted her hair to look like Daddy's. (He had just gotten his hair cut earlier). I don't think Titan will try that trick again.
Andrew was able to get some projects done while he was home and he also took great care of Lindsay as she recovered from her surgery. They make a good team.
After being home for his 4 weeks, he had to head back to work. He wasn't sure if he'd be working due to the virsus and how the airports are clamping down on travel, but with his work permit to show his travel is for work he was able to head out.
He said that the airport was eerily empty, there was no line to check in, and that their were only like 10 people on the airplane. It was pretty wierd. He had a straight flight to Wisconsin where he'll be for a couple of days and then head to Mississippi. We just hope he can get home after his tours up.
Lindsay's recovery from her surgery went great and she took over on the tasks of taking care of the kids. With this stay at home issue I've been helping her out with the kids when she has to go get groceries so she dosen't have to take all the kids with her. We can't have anyone getting sick.
Jorie and Luke were able to have their Uncle Johnny come from Bellingham, WA and visit them for a few days before everything started shutting down due to COVID-19. He got to hang out with his niece and nephew, and sister one day while Garrett was at work. The kids wore him out, but I'm sure he loved their hugs, smiles, and giggles.
Garrett took Johnny out and showed him the town on scotters they rented and then went to "Keys On Main", a paino dueling gathering place and bar that has some amazingly talented piano players. The patrons can request songs or just sit back and enjoy the music. Where they both love music this was a good out for them for a guys night out.
They packed their bags and took the family to Florida to spend some time with Zandra's parents. They spent a lot of time on the beach enjoying the sunshine, tried some fishing, and swam in their parents pool to fill up the time. They ended up coming home a couple of days early due to the travel restrictions that were going to be put on people traveling into different states, but they had a good time.
They got home okay, but where they'd been out of state his work office emailed him and asked that he work from home for two weeks, so he set up his office in his basement art/music/ exercise room and got things there.
He closed on some loans before they left and seemed to have adjusted just fine. Hi reviews kept coming in show how he's "Got their back", that's his little signature quote he uses for advertising.
Jorie would send little letters and pictures under the door when he was working to boost his day as well. How cute is that?!
He also found a note in his door from one of his Primary kids, and because of that note he stepped up his game as the ward Primary chorister and started doing Singing Time via You Tube with the kids in his home so that his Primary kids could join in while in their homes.
Zandra's been baking with the kids and letting them make bread, rolls, bagels, sourdough bread, cakes, cookies, you name it. The kids have loved cooking with mom, and the whole family benefits from it! Yummy!
Staying at home together as a family has been good to them.
Danica and Jason have seemed to stay busy, he closed on a loan before the virus hit in their area and has continued to work out of the office this month
They got outside when they could and then decided to head to St. George and spend time with Jason's dad and grandpa and really enjoy the outdoors by going on Razor rides, and golfing. They also checked out the Chasin waterfalls at Gunlock State Park before it was closed down.
Oh, I forgot to mention that they packed all they needed so they could both work at their home away from home while they were gone. They may decide not to return home after a couple of weeks of warm and sunshine.
This month started out great, but by the third week the whole world was in mayhem due to the Coronavirus. Everyone's life changed, there were fears, people were rushing and buying everything they could to create what it seemed to be 2 year supply of food and necessities. Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, disinfectants and disinfecting wipes were hard to find anywhere. I had never seen grocery store shelves empty or the produce department so sparse. The world was in panic, people were dying, people were sick and the hospitals were overwhelmed with trying to find a way to not let the virus spread throughout the hospitals. Make shift testing centers were set up, and anyone who had traveled out of the state had to be in quarantine for two weeks to make sure they were healthy.
However through it all, I have felt peace. I have felt that all will be well, as long as we are careful, and safe, we will be fine.
We as a community, a state, and a nation, will get through this, we just don't know when it will end. So we'll keep on praying and put our turst in the Lord, and keep on making the most of the time we have together with our loved ones.
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