March Mixture

As I was driving home, I looked at the odometer and saw it hit 10,000 miles. We've had the Tucson since November of 2019, so 16 months and we finally put on 10,000 miles! Whoot, whoot!

Dale and I got together with Eloise for her birthday date. She chose to go to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe and to the Fun Park. It was El's lucky day at the Fun Park! She knew exactly what games to play to get more tickets and focused on them. Then we ran into Bryan, Stephanie, Emma, Ethan and Elizabeth (Dale's brother's family and married son with his wife), who while waiting for their time to go bowling played some games and gave the tickets they earned to Eloise. She ended up getting 625 tickets!! With her tickets she was able to get a gray and white stuffed animal wolf plus a little gift for her siblings and friend. 

We all had a fun time. I'm so glad we can do dates with the grandkids when they are a little older (We start them after they start Kindergarten). 

Our area is opening up a bit more and with that, The Cache Center of Arts was able to book some shows. I was able to usher a couple of shows that the Eccles. Music Theater West, a local theater company, put on Little Shop of Horrors, and the Cache Valley Ballet Company put on Sleeping Beauty. Both we great in their own way, and brought the arts back live to the valley. The patrons and workers all wear masks and the seating is social distanced. Way to go Cache Valley for showing how it's done!!

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day we pulled the family in Utah together to celebrate how lucky we are to be called family. We had corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, saute'd onions, brisket, green salads, cornbread, Irish Soda Bread, and brownies with green ice cream. We also played St. Patrick's Bingo and the winners got gold candy coins (which in the end, all were winners). The little ones loved it, and the big ones were good sports. Then with it being a beautiful sunny day outside we played yard games outside. Fun times!!

The first day of Spring brought sunshine and two days later we had rain and snow, it didn't last long but it didn't really warm up either. I did get a cool picture coming home one day with the low clouds in the mouth of the canyon. We even had a flower bloom! Give us a couple of weeks and it will be warm again. I'm hoping anyway.

Nate's been working and with spring coming in Washington comes rain, a lot of rain. During his down time he made up a video of this Big Mountain Boys Ice Retreat in Hyalite, MT in January. He titled it Hyalite 2020. It's amazing and so pretty. If you want to check it out look it up on his Instagram feed or possibly You Tube. 

He also went on a trip with some of his buddies and stayed in the Norway Hut in the Wallowa Range in Oregon for 5 days to get in skiing. Other than that he worked so he can pay for more fun adventures.

Amie taught ski lessons most of the month, but without good snow, the skiing shut down. Mazin would go with her and ski. He's getting pretty good, riding the lift and starting to go down bigger hills. Next year he'll be skiing with the big kids.

Mazin also went to the dentist. I think he likes going. The way they treat him with movies and headphones he just chills.

Jaxson has had a roller coaster ride this month. He tried out for the high school boys soccer team and ended up not making it. They asked him if he wanted to be the manager and practice with the team. He reluctantly agreed and did that for a couple of weeks and then the coach approached him and said that he wanted to put him on the roster  to play and start in the pre-season game they had the next day! Dale and I went to his games (I sat in the rain during the game I went to, and Dale got the wind) and he played great, and a lot in the games. I guess the coach realized he messed up by cutting him and saw what he'd done when they had practice. Way to go Jaxson!! Looking forward to more (warmer) games to watch.

Jaxson also had his birthday, but it was pretty low key because of soccer. We did meet up with the Mallory's at Stacked Pancakes for dinner where I let Jaxson win the arm wrestle because it was his birthday.

They'll celebrate bigger when they can.  Happy 15th Birthday Jaxson!!  Big things are around the corner!

The kids also got together with some of their friends and went to a Bounce n' Slide place for some fun.

Andrew's been working back east in Georgia, and shared a video his company made of what he does for work. It's pretty awesome as well. Check it out at www.arielsoultionsinc.com

The kids are keeping Lindsay going. Titan's taking off on the piano, teaching himself and killing it. The girls are working on their creative talents as well. 

Garrett started another mortgage banking course that was to be held in Washington, D.C. but due to COVID it' was online. He's working to get his Accredited Mortgage Professional designation through the Mortgage Bankers Associations School of Mortgage Banking.

He's also helping clients and the community be aware of the comings and goings of what's going on with the financial industry and loans by doing his little "I've Got Your Back" clips.

Garrett also got the kids out on the slopes of Powder Mountain to enjoy a great Spring Day! Luke's doing great, I bet he'll be going at it alone next year. 

Both Danica and Jason have been doing their own work towards bettering themselves and others circumstances. Danica's been studying for a big test that will allow her to help more with the mortgages in the office and Jason's been doing his own "Hassell Free Go" info. spots. Go team Hassell!

Danica branched out again and did another painting of Christ for Lindsay. She wanted one for Easter. Very nice, I'd say.

They took a long weekend and went to St. George to spend some time with Jason's dad, Grandpa, and friends. I'm sure it helped that it was warmer there too.

They got in some rock climbing, golf, and biking (Jason got a new bike and wanted to test it out). They didn't bring back the sunshine and warmth with them though.

Concerning country and local news -- Pres, Biden opened up the boarders and there's been a LOT of  citizens from other countries crossing it. So many that they haven't been able to test all of them for COVID, and it's given the drug cartel opportunities to smuggle drugs and do human trafficing more. Somethings bound to change, but we're not sure when that will happen as of yet..

Gas prices have gone up..

Gasoline prices in late February and early March, 1994-2021

Note: Not adjusted for inflation. Red bars are for Republican presidents; blue bars are for Democratic presidents.

Source: Energy Information Administration

....and the COVID death rates in the country have surpassed 500,000, but our area is dropping, which is nice.

US sees deadliest day with 160 deaths

There are at least 52,976 cases of the novel coronavirus in the United States and 704 people have died, according to CNN Health’s tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the US through public health systems.

There have already been 163 deaths reported today, according to a tally by CNN, making this the deadliest day in the US since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as all repatriated cases.

This post was updated to reflect the most recent figures. A COVID relief bill or Biden's Rescue Plan was passed for $1.9 trillion of which only 9% of that went to actual COVID relief.  Every eligible member in a home also received a COVID stimulus check of $1,400 for adults and $700 for children from the government as well

For the second day in a row the Utah Health Department indicates there are fewer than 10,000 active COVID-19 cases in Utah. The state’s estimate for Tuesday is 9,798 active cases.It has been more than six months since this happened last, when there were 9,777 active COVID cases, Sept. 15, 2020.

UDOH reported Tuesday 371 new positive cases of the virus and 33 of them were found in the Bear River Health District. Since the start of the pandemic over a year ago there have been 20,706 total cases in Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties (20,286 of those patients are described as “recovered”).

                        

The BRHD reported Tuesday 72,291 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the district, 51,248 in Cache County, 19,938 in Box Elder County and 1,105 in Rich County. That means nearly 17 percent of adults in the district have been immunized.The state’s Tuesday update found four new COVID-19 deaths statewide since Monday, although one of them occurred prior to March 1, 2021. Since the start of the outbreak 385,127 Utahns have contracted COVID-19.There have been a total of 220,271 coronavirus tests administered in Utah’s three northern counties including 163,573 in Cache county, 55,162 in Box Elder County and 1,536 in Rich County.

As of Tuesday 2,118 Utahns have lost their lives to the coronavirus.

Nearly 2.4 million Utahns have been tested including 5,113 people in the last 24 hours.

Just over 4.2 million total tests have been administered including a one-day total of 14,696 since Monday.  The rolling seven-day average of positive tests is 424 a day.

As of Tuesday 134 people are hospitalized statewide with the virus, 57 of them in intensive care. UDOH said six in 10 of Utah’s intensive care unit hospital beds are occupied as of Tuesday. There has been a total of 15,503 Utahns hospitalized with the virus since March, 2020.

The state health department said with 24,329  more vaccines administered since Monday, vaccinations now total just over 1.3 million.

Tuesday case counts in three southeast Idaho counties include 1,120 positive cases in Franklin County, 367 in Bear Lake County and 347 in Oneida County. There have been 179,763 confirmed cases and 1,957 COVID-19 deaths in Idaho.

COVID-19

 

Biden's American Rescue Plan

The $1.9 trillion coronavirus economic relief program signed by President Biden on March 11 provides:

· $1,400 stimulus checks for eligible individuals

· $300 weekly unemployment benefit to Sept 6

· $3,000 per child tax credit ($3,600 if under 6)

· 15% increase in food stamp benefits and increased federal health care subsidies

· $70B to increase vaccine & testing capabilities

· $30B for rental assistance; eviction moratorium & forbearance through Sept

· $57B for small businesses & communities

· $350B to states, tribes, and municipalities

More details at cnn.com

There were two different shootings, one in Georgia and the other in Colorado where 10 people died in  each shooting. Very sad deal. 

First Atlanta, then Boulder: Two mass shootings in a week.

On a happier note, Utah State University went to the NCAA play-offs, but lost against Texas Tech. in the 1st round. USU's basketball coach, Craig Smith, was offered a job to be the head coach at University of Utah and took it after only coaching at USU for 3 years. Sad deal for us. Hopefully we can get a good coach to replace him.

The 11-seed Utah State Aggies fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Bloomington, Ind. on Friday, losing to the 6-seed Texas Tech Red Raiders 65-53 to conclude their season.

So, there it is. March Mixture. A little of everything that's going on with the Hansen Clan.