21 April 2020

Eat your vitamins

President Nelson gave this remark in the fall of 2018. He couldn't have been more right. This has been an incredibly crazy time in the history of our world. I'm not sure I would use exciting, but I guess it could fit the bill.

Here's what's upped the "excitement" around here:

**School is officially closed through the end of the year. Students will not be going back to the classroom. I began the tedious job of cleaning out desks and cleaning desks. It just makes me so, so sad. Our daily Zoom meetings are such a blessing. In addition to the school suspension, all athletics were also canceled. There will be no spring sports. No tennis matches for Nate, no practices, no tournaments. We are still waiting to see if they can salvage graduation, to which Nate said he could care less. He just wants to play tennis and hang with his friends.

**Last Thursday was the annual Utah Great Shakeout earthquake drill. I didn't think it would involve real earthquakes, but at 7:40am, a 4.2 hit just as I was getting out of the shower. I stood there paralyzed, wondering if it was going to get stronger and thinking, "This really is not a good time for an earthquake." This was the second 4.2 to hit last week, the first one coming Tuesday night.

**We've added to our vehicle fleet. The van that has been with us for 13 years has 227000 miles on it and keeps running like a charm, but we've been looking to replace it for awhile. The day Tyler hopped on the auction site and accidentally bought a Rav4 crossover (because no one else was bidding) was the day the governor came out with his Stay Home, Stay Safe orders. Ummm . . . our car was in Phoenix. Monday morning we hesitatingly boarded the first available flight, Reed shuttled us to the auction site, and eleven hours later we were home. It never felt so good to be home and safe.

**The latest from the mission department is that current missionaries awaiting reassignment can be released and delay for 12 to 18 months. Missionaries with calls can continue with online MTC and leave for their area if conditions have improved. Missionaries in the middle of online MTC can finish and then go when things settle down or delay and go in 12 to 18 months. And those prospective missionaries (this is the category Nate falls under) can submit papers knowing they may go to a temporary assignment or they can wait and submit at a later time. Nate's going to submit and see what happens.

**Tyler is working from home after some long delays in getting systems up and running remotely.

**Alex FINALLY received his trophy from the Hoop Shoot held in January. Don't mind the coronahair. At this point he may not get a haircut until the beginning of school in the fall.

**Ash missed passing the test for her learner's permit by one question. Then they shut down the office before we could go back. I've allowed her a few practice drives, mainly in the church parking lot.


She also stays busy working on puzzles.

**When Erik began his mission 19 months ago, he was allowed to call home twice a year and email once a week. He now calls whenever up to 3 times a week and uses Messenger to text us. His letters still come once a week but with very little meat to them. There just isn't much going on. He even played a game of Yahtzee with us and Kiersten over Messenger last Sunday.

Staying home and staying safe is working, but it hasn't been easy. We're a little more sluggish, a little more testy with one another. Balance and routine are such commodities at this point. We're all starving for a little normalcy. It's coming, but not without testing the patience of all of us.

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