Well, March started out like an old month. Sure, there was a little unease in the air with things happening around the globe, but typically those things seem far from home. Lets just start with the fun events and life that occurred before the world shut down...
Katelee had a career day at school. She was able to spend the day shadowing someone while they worked. We threw around ideas, asking one of her old elementary teachers, watching dad make phone calls and write emails...nope, then we thought about how fun it would be to go on a flight with Shannon. We didn't think that would be an option, but lo and behold, Shannon worked her magic and Katelee spent a day flying the friendly skies.
She had an unforgettable day working the aisles of the aircraft, sitting in the pilot's seat for a little tour, hanging out with Shannon (and grandma tagged along, just in case someone didn't get on the flight back). She flew to Portland and back and was one happy flight attendant!! HUGE thanks to Shannon for making it happen.
At the beginning of March, Katelee also was able to perform in her school production of Aladdin. She had a couple of shows in the ensemble with her friends. Here she is with Coco and Capri.
A couple of days before the show, one of the cast members had a family emergency and they needed someone to fill in last minute in a featured singing role with lines. Katelee was pulled out of class by the theatre and music teacher because they knew she could rise to the challenge! And she did! She worked hard and memorized harmony, lines, blocking in a super short time and impressed us all!
Middle of March, life started to get more eerie as news of a novel virus hit closer to home. One of the NBA players on the Utah Jazz was positive for the Covid-19 virus-if officially had made its way to Utah. No one really knew what that meant-is it rampant? are we all in danger? do we need to hunker down at home? Grocery items-particularly toliet paper and lysol spray/cleaners started flying off the shelf. The masses are in mad panic rushing to stores to supply their homes with necessary goods. I totally get the cleaner, but lets contemplate the shortage of bottled water...even if a family was quarantined their water would not turn off. I thought it was ridiculous...then, an earthquake hit. But, I am getting ahead of myself.
March 13, countries are suffering, Italy is pretty much on death's door, New York City has hundreds of people in the hospital and we just don't know what will happen here. Shannon, Paige and I have tickets to Dear Evan Hansen and things are shutting down left and right. Our governor calls for a soft closure of schools-we have 2 weeks of online learning while we try to understand the reach/spread of the virus. Stinking Eccles theater will not give me an answer as to whether the show is on or not. We enjoy a lovely Mexican dinner and as we are driving to the show (because earlier that day the theater company said they weren't sure what the governor's orders meant for their venue. We weren't supposed to be in large gatherings of a certain amount of people.) As we were driving to the show, the theater called to let us know the production was cancelled. Booo!! We were so sad. We had been looking forward to this for, hmmm, forever! But, little did we know it was just a drop in the bucket.
March 17th-Katelee's birthday!! While we knew we couldn't be at school or in large groups, we thought we better postpone her celebration til we can have friends over. It was a general rule in our neighborhood to only be outside with friends and no one indoors where the virus would be able to spread more easily. Katelee did get to walk with a couple gals to Sodalicious while Harrison, Brenna and I decided to get out of the house and put on quite the dancing show while we walked to their school for exercise.
We had to play it safe for her party, but that didn't stop us from highlighting this amazing gal. None of us have ever had an emergency quarantined bday, so we didn't know how to make it work, but she was understanding and flexible and we love her for that...and many othe reasons! Shannon came over (grandma and grandpa stayed home due to their high risk group)
Katelee is so awesome. She is pretty much a baby/small child whisperer and can calm Harrison down better than anyone. She's always been very emotional and we think that translates well to her talent for the stage! She is wicked smart and so much fun to be around and is growing into a gorgeous young lady. We adore her.
We thought we needed to document how our family is handling this unprecedented time, so we began a little book called 'The Corona-vella'
The first day we recorded entries went something like this (remember it was St Patrick's Day)...
Harrison: "The toliet water was green. Something that was freaky to me was that Grant almost cut off my ears if I touched him" (Sounds like the wrath of the creator has not yet struck a chord in Grant even though the world is in turmoil- just business as usual for him)
Brenna:" Me, Mom and Harrison went on a walk and our friends acrossed the street were playing outside and we had to cross the road so that we were not close to them." So sad and strange to be avoiding contact with people...
Katelee: "Today was my birthday! I went on a walk (outside) with some friends to get a soda and got some fun presents. Sadly, though, my grandma couldn't come tongiht because people over 60 were required/encouraged to stay home unelss necessary. So, it felt weird without her but I still had a good day." Everyone is really encouraged to stay home and isolate, but people in high risk categories really need to take extra precautions. Everyone is determining what is 'essential' because that is the only thing we are supposed to be out of the house for.
Grant: "I went to Walmart to get some snacks but there was nothing on the shelves to steal. Also I couldn't hang out with any of my friends." Telling a teenager they aren't allowed to socialize with friends for weeks is pretty much a nightmare-for you and them. He obviously has a different idea on what is necessary as he openly documented he went to Walmart...
So, here we were dealing with a holiday in the midst of a global health crisis, trying to stay calm and keep perspective. Then, what should happen on March 18?! YEP- an EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!
Now, flashback to last year when we experienced our first recognizable earthquake that caused a bit of a jolt to our hearts. This one was bigger. It was a 5.7 epicenter in Magna, so not right at our house, but it was loud and startling. Dave and I both woke up (he's counting his lucky stars he wasn't woken up to me yelling at him). I was calm as a cucumber in this one and even was putting my hand on him telling him we were ok. I've officially learned my lesson! Ha! He ran to the little kids after the initial shaking, I went downstairs to bring Grant and Katelee up. Grant thought the earthquake was in his dream and just wasn't sure what I was doing in his room! There were lots of little aftershocks through the next day or two, but we were all safe. There was damage done to other homes and parts of the valley. Here is a picture of a wall at Dave's office...
March 18th was also our first day of online schooling. We were told it would be two weeks of at home learning. First day was mostly a success-had a bit of a tricky time getting everyone logged into their chromebooks, but we did it! Harrison asked me if he could be British for home school and he then legit spoke with an English accent for the duration of the day. Of course, I had to join him and it was a jolly good time.
We spent much of the day/week facetiming and texting people to make sure everyone was alright from the earthquake and hanging in there with this crazy virus situation. Don't worry, the next day, amidst a couple tiny aftershocks, a big rainstorm came in. Our power was out for a good 3 hours. Remember all those prophecies about the ushering of the second coming...yea...pretty sure that's happening. For reals though.
The next few days were a relief to just be in isolation-earthquake free and power on! Ha! Counting those blessings. I wanted to keep with Harrison's kindergarten schedule, so we did rotations-we worked on Art on Art day, extra exercise/game for PE day. For Fairytale Friday, we listened to Hansel and Gretel on the Ipad and then made Gingerbread houses.
I love when Grant participates in kindergarten curriculum...maybe it had something to do with the candy houses, but I think it was just the pull of our company.
We have tried to burn time by having some sort of a checklist of things to do each day. Getting outside is a requirement for the day and we have had some great races at the field of Kauri Sue by our house.
Harrison decided to wear a face mask to protect him from Covid 19. So far, it has worked.
On March 23rd, we got some news that felt like a punch in the gut...no returning to school until at least May 1st. Deep breathing practice immediately began. The kids are struggling not being able to connect with friends. They are facetiming and texting but everyone really has to hunker down at home until we can figure out what is going on with this virus. It is an comfortable and shocking month to be sure. It is insane how quickly your regular routine/life in general can be halted.
I am so very grateful that our lives are built on a solid foundation-Jesus Christ. Scary things happen in this world and it is effecting everyone, but there is a perspective and peace that comes as we turn to him. It is still so hard, but the burden is shared and
hope is a gift. Church, of course, is cancelled. So for now, it looks a little like this:
Brenna and Harrison have taken turns conducting. We do a song, sometimes a musical number, the sacarament hymn and ordinance and a little lesson. At my parents house, it looked like this:
Shannon is quarantined because she was exposed to the corona virus through her work. So, they can't be in the same room. It is such a funny picture to me!!
It is pretty special and amazing that the church has truly been preparing for this for years. The rolling out of Come Follow Me, at home lessons, shorter church, etc- great confirmation of a prophet and the Lord guiding his people.
We were put in a new ward one week before the world was locked down around here and we got to go to that church once. I was put in as the YW president, so we will even see how that will work.
So, for now, we live a life isolated. It is full of online school (which is really so short if I could get Harrison to cooperate). Brenna is done in 30 minutes...and then we need to find things to do! We are starting a puzzle challenge...
We've borrowed a few from neighbors. Then, grandma was nice to drop off a box of books and Shannon threw in some puzzles, so we will work on those.
It was a sad day when she just had to place the box on our doorstep and run. I literally threw a book at my mother (she had to take it back to her work, I wasn't angry!). We stopped by her house for her birthday and had to sing from the grass. Shannon sent us this picture...
So, for now, we are just trying to keep track of this wild time of our lives. We miss being together and at school and church so hopefully this dumb virus goes away soon!! For now, we band together...
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