Yep still April and yep, still quarantined...

We have settled into a smooth routine here.  We are heading into our 6th week of quarantine.  Isn't it crazy?  Part of my routine is watching the governors daily press conference at 11 every day to update us on cases ane new closings.  Yesterday was our highest day at over 600 new cases.  So, as you can guess, Bob and I don't go anywhere.  But there is still a  ton going on!  Here is our top 10 for the week!

1.  The biggest and most important thing is that I FINALLY finished my book order for Boulder Peak, my new school.  I am still blown away by how long it took!  Here is what I posted:
           Question: How long does it take to create a brand new library of books from scratch? The answer is waaaaay over 100 hours!!!!! I'm not sure if I should laugh, cry, jump for joy? It has been grueling yet beautiful, exhausting yet fulfilling. I am not sure my new students at my new school will understand the depth and time commitment I put into this, but I can literally say I picked out EVERY.SINGLE.BOOK. And its a spectacular collection!!! #cantmovemyarmwristorhand #howwoulddoitwithoutthevirus?

2.  We have loved being in touch with family more!

3. Exciting News!  Alayna is moving to an apartment in Provo to live with her cousin Emily for a few months.  She wants to get a job and make money for college (as she originally planned at Kaylas) but with this virus still spreading and a new baby coming, she can't get a job and risk bringing that back to the baby.  Her cousin Emily also graduated early and moved to Provo and had space in her apartment so this works out perfect!!!

4. Even MORE exciting news:  We have really been struggling to find a safe way to travel to Utah and make sure we dont contract or carry the virus and bring it to Kaylas house.  After going back and forth and struggling to come up with a plan, we finally found one that will work!!!  So, this Friday, May 1, Bob and I are going to take the Amtrak Train from Mount Pleasant to Provo.  We got a bedroom on the train with its own view and private bathroom. So, we can suit up and stay in our room the whole time and then get straight to Kayla's house with minimum chance of germage.  We will get there late Saturday night.  We will stay until May 15thish? Then we will fly home (with our protective gear).  It's a weird world we live in now...

5. We celebrated our 27th anniversary in quarantine!  We had a nice quiet dinner at home.  Outback Steakhouse delivered our dinner and my friend made us this amazing Lemon Ice Box Pie!

6.  Marisa and Anthony went by their new house and people were actually working on it!  It was exciting for us to see it coming along!  They are both working from home and Anthony's brother arrived home safely from his mission!

7.  Kayla and Brandon have been busy too.  Lots of big projects at their house! Sanded and repainted their dining table and chairs!  Brandon is also working from home.  Baby will be induced May 6th if he doesn't come before then.  I know Kayla is ready for him to come today! lol

 8.  Bob and I went through all of our food supply and 72 hour kits.  We harvested aloe from our aloe plant and even ground wheat to make wheat bread from scratch.  Look at us being all domestic and survivalist- haha!

9.  Look at these adorable pics!

10.  We are all happy, healthy, and safe!  These days that means alot.  We are so excited for our travel this week and the new addition coming to our family.  We promise to skye with great grandparents while we are there so we can chat and you can see the new baby live.

Also sums up the virus well...

Posted by someone on FB April 15

"The Corona rules as of today: 😂

1. Basically, you can't leave the house for any reason, but if you have to, then you can.

2. Masks are useless, but maybe you have to wear one, it can save you, it is useless, but maybe it is mandatory as well.

3. Stores are closed, except those that are open.

4. You should not go to hospitals unless you have to go there. Same applies to doctors, you should only go there in case of emergency, provided you are not too sick.

5. This virus is deadly but still not too scary, except that sometimes it actually leads to a global disaster.

6. Gloves won't help, but they can still help.

7. Everyone needs to stay HOME, but it's important to GO OUT.

8. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarket, but there are many things missing when you go there in the evening, but not in the morning. Sometimes.

9. The virus has no effect on children except those it affects.

10. Animals are not affected, but there is still a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there…

11. You will have many symptoms when you are sick, but you can also get sick without symptoms, have symptoms without being sick, or be contagious without having symptoms. Oh, my..

12. In order not to get sick, you have to eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand and it's better not to go out, well, but no…

13. It's better to get some fresh air, but you get looked at very wrong when you get some fresh air, and most importantly, you don't go to parks or walk. But don’t sit down, except that you can do that now if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant (but not too old).

14. You can't go to retirement homes, but you have to take care of the elderly and bring food and medication.

15. If you are sick, you can't go out, but you can go to the pharmacy.

16. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house, which may have been prepared by people who didn't wear masks or gloves. But you have to have your groceries decontaminated outside for 3 hours. Pizza too?

17. Every disturbing article or disturbing interview must start with " I don't want to trigger panic, but…"

18. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but you can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.

19. You can walk around with a friend but not with your family if they don't live under the same roof.

20. You are safe if you maintain the appropriate social distance, but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at the safe social distance.

21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours, no, four, no, six, no, we didn't say hours, maybe days? But it takes a damp environment. Oh no, not necessarily.

22. The virus stays in the air - well no, or yes, maybe, especially in a closed room, in one hour a sick person can infect ten, so if it falls, all our children were already infected at school before it was closed. But remember, if you stay at the recommended social distance, however in certain circumstances you should maintain a greater distance, which, studies show, the virus can travel further, maybe.

23. We count the number of deaths but we don't know how many people are infected as we have only tested so far those who were "almost dead" to find out if that's what they will die of

24. We have no treatment, except that there may be one that apparently is not dangerous unless you take too much (which is the case with all medications). Orange man bad.

25. We should stay locked up until the virus disappears, but it will only disappear if we achieve collective immunity, so when it circulates… but we must no longer be locked up for that?"

To remember:

Someone posted on Facebook and I want to keep it to remember:

Gas price a mile from home was $1.32
School cancelled - yes cancelled
Self-distancing measures on the rise.
Tape and stickers on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.
Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.
Non-essential stores and businesses(hair salons, nail salons and many more) mandated closed.
Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
Entire sports seasons cancelled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.
Those grieving loss are doing so in isolation and can't bury their loved ones.
No masses, churches are closed.
No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 10 or more.
Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home. Unless you’re an essential worker.
Children's outdoor play parks are closed.
We are to distance from each other.
Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.
Shelves are bare.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
Fines are established for breaking the rules.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
Press conferences daily from the President. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
Government incentives to stay home.
Barely anyone on the roads.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

Is this an episode of the Twilight Zone???

I think this is the 5th week of being quarantined in our home.  I sometimes lose track of the days.  Life is very weird now and it's hard to picture it ever going back to normal. Again, I don't mind it- I haven't felt this great and functioned this well in years.  But it is all just so very weird.

This week Bob got a pay cut- 10% for the remainder of the year.  But, to offset that, he gets 15 extra vacation days which is great! I am extremely grateful they just cut everyone's salary rather than laying people off.  He works each day in Alayna's bedroom.

This week the governor called off school for the remainder of the year- which I am grateful for- for many reasons.  It is weird thought to think I am completely done with teaching at Excelsior which is sad in some ways.  I still have a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done there as I move to a new school.  I have been working every week with teachers to provide activities and resources.

I have also put in way over 100 hours into choosing new books for the new school.  I will only be able to get around 6,000 books with the budget they gave-which seems great except Excelsior has over 15,000 and we never seemed like we had enough.  But it is amazing to be able to say I picked out every.single.book. I am so very excited to be a part of this new school.

We have enjoyed being in contact with family and spending time on the things that matter most.

This week it snowed and we got over 2 inches- by the afternoon it was gone and you could see all of our green grass.  What the heck?

Last night our smoke alarms went off several times starting at 4:30AM.  It was infuriating!  I think we finally found the culprit and Bob is spraying the house now for bugs- remember we had this years ago and we thought it might be a spider that got in?  Good think we don't have anywhere we need to be because we are exhausted.

Kayla got some beautiful family pictures and we are eagerly awaiting Marisa's engagement photos.

#quaratineproblem So, when Alayna left for Utah, she put her potted plant up next to mine. I was determined to keep it alive for her so I have been faithfully watering it. It hasn't grown at all, and it hasn't died (Which is huge for me), but it was baffling. It was just this one STEM and even with all of my help, it wasn't growing. Finally, after 5 weeks, I pulled it off the windowsill to find it is literally a leaf just laying on the dirt. It wasn't an actual plant. Im sure there is a good analogy in that sad story- faithfully caring no matter the potential of the plant?

We have only gone out a few times. Yesterday we went to get groceries and its a whole thing. I was worried Aldi's might think we were robbing the place.

The thing that makes me angry is how people are not taking this seriously enough. I posted this in facebook yesterday:

 I can tell you exactly why our region is in a Level 10 and shelter in place situation. We went to Aldi's for supplies (I picture myself in a dystopian novel) with gloves on and masks on. We even wash all our clothes when we get home. I cant tell you how many people are out, in groups, no masks, no gloves, taking no precautions at all. People!!!! If you follow the guidelines from the state we would be a lot better off! #steppingoffsoapboxbutstillticked

I have no idea what the next weeks hold- but I DO now that for now, we are all safe and have what we need.  I pray every night it stays that way.  We love you all!

It's still April...

I will admit- I LOVE this quarantine.  I am doing so well and I know when we go bac to "normal" I will hurt again, not be able to sleep, and be a stressed out mess.  Can we stay this way a little longer?

All restaurants are closed due to the virus, but they are open for curbside pickup or delivery.  We are trying to help support family-owned businesses that are really suffering.  We didnt even know what Fong's Pizza was...

We had a beautiful conference weekend.  I was so very touched by the talks, news of new temples in places I never imagined, and especially the closing song. This conference touched me more deeply- maybe its because I deeply invested in the messages and having no outside influences?  It was wonderful to talk to our children too.

We have fallen into a great work schedule. Plus I am able to work out each day, we go for a walk mid-day each day , and do yoga each day.  One day its was hot and beautiful outside.  That evening a crazy weird hailstorm hit!

I have been working so hard on work stuff.  I LOVE choosing all the new books but do you know how long its taking?  Its a painstaking process but will be amazing when I am done because I can say I literally picked out every single book!  I have also been posting daily newsletters for teachers, students, and parents.  This week we played with this fun app!

Update on the virus: as of this moment:

Coronavirus Cases:

1,803,633

view by country

Deaths:

110,835

Recovered:

412,356

 

No- we aren't supposed to leave our house except for supplies- then we wear masks and gloves.  Thank heavens for the beautiful weather and being able to walk around the neighborhood. We did go to Walmart- its amazing how many people are not wearing masks and gloves- it explains why this is still spreading. It was a miracle though- they finally had toilet paper- we were allowed to take one and its the smallest toilet paper I have ever seen.  The world is weird.

We love you all!  Until next week!

Life totally NOT back to normal

So....as we are not able to leave our home, we have been working on tons of projects that we have needed to do.  We wonder things will look in 6 weeks when the next grandbaby is due and in July for Marisa and Anthony's wedding.  Until then, we have loved connecting with family and for me, having this precious time!  Ellie loves to take me on tours around her house and is very excited for baby brother to come!

We are still doing yoga and we tried a Level 3 yesterday and rocked it!  Getting stronger every day!

I had a PD day on Monday and every hour was a different zoom conference!  It was fantastic!  I prefer it to regular meetings.  Also, we finalized a vendor for the new books so I can start working on that.  I have also been sending out daily newsletters to teachers and on FB for parents of resources to use- so you know me- using my time wisely- but this time MAKING that ever so vital time to relax.  Also- doing fun challenges for students too!

So, next weeks blog- who knows? The world seems to change each day.  We are excited to see where we head but certainly pray for the relief of those suffering from the virus and pray none of us get it.  #stayathome

This is our toilet paper aisle