Coronavirus

This virus is annoying! People are panicking and buying up toilet paper and hand sanitizer. And, in order to be safe, things need to be canceled or postponed.  I was asked how the coronavirus has changed our lives and here is what I came up with.

Family: We are supposed to be in Hawaii right now on Spring Break.  This was our Christmas present from Santa and has been planned since November.  But, due to the coronavirus, we canceled our vacation. Thursday, we had a family discussion as to what we wanted to do.  We had until midnight on Thursday to make any changes.  I called Hawaii and was assured by all the places where we had tickets that we would be able to go there.  So we decided to go.  Friday, Ethan felt uncomfortable going and, when we looked, we were able to get refunds for everything because of the changing condition.  So we decided to stay home.  It turned out to be a blessing because the weather in Hawaii is horrible right now.  So we are hoping things calm down and we can go in June.

Courtney: The Utah High School Athletic Association has postponed all athletic events until after the scare calms down.  Track practice has been postponed for at least 2 weeks and they don't know when they can do another track meet.  Courtney just got on a competitive soccer team and their practices have been canceled for 2 weeks and the games have been postponed indefinitely. School has been put on "Dismissal" which means that the students will go online for 2 weeks. We are on Spring Break so she will, hopefully, only have to do online stuff for a week, but you never know.

Ethan: Dixie State University has gone to online classes for the rest of the semester.  Ethan has a photography class and a creative writing class.  Those will both be online after Spring Break.  DSU may cancel their graduation ceremonies.  And we haven't heard about Success Academy.  The Utah Sterling Scholar program has canceled the competition at DSU and told the scholars that they will have virtual interviews to decide who gets the scholarships.  The banquet was canceled and we got a refund for our tickets.  And Success Academy is probably going to cancel their dinner for Honor Society.  Ethan's mission call came and he may be doing the MTC virtually. Unless Sunday meetings begin again, he may not have a mission farewell.  And his temple experience may be different if they only allow parents to attend with the missionary.

Bryan: So far nothing much has changed for him except the Sunday meetings.  There may come a time when he works from home for the City but so far he has still been going in.

Michelle: The school is on "Dismissal" so after Spring Break I will still be going in to work.  I'm not sure how long they will have the secretaries still go in when there aren't students.  But if we go on "Closure" then I may be put on furlough and not go back to work until the school opens again.

On the bright side:  We were able to have sacrament meeting in our home which brought a different Spirit than what we usually have with our Sunday gospel study. We have been able to spend more time together as a family because we are supposed to stay away from others.  Because a lot of activities have been canceled, we can have family dinner together and time to be together as a family.  So there are good parts and bad parts.

I just hope it all goes away soon so we can get back to our lives.

Pandemic

Bryan and I spent Sunday playing Pandemic and trying to beat the game.  After trying twice, we decided to play "house rules" i.e. cheat, and we were able to win.  So we kept revising the rules until we figured it all out.  It's a fun game but hits a little too close to home.

Shopping

Courtney and I went to the store Friday afternoon and this is what we found...

If you want any Easter candy, they have you covered.


But if you want anything else, you're out of luck.

Track Meet

Courtney had her first track meet on Tuesday.  She was running the 100 and the 200-meter dashes.  Track meets are a lot like swim meets.  You go and then sit around forever while you wait for something to happen.  Then it happens for 30 seconds and the waiting begins for the next race.  Luckily it wasn't too hot and it didn't rain.

We watched Courtney warm-up and then get ready for her race.




Courtney is getting ready to run.

The 100 meter dash.

I had a meeting so I didn't stay for the 100-meter dash but she did great in that one too.  She came in 2nd in her heat for the 100 and the middle of her heat for the 200.

After the race, her coach gave them all advice.

Letter from 7th grade self

Ethan's honors Language Arts teacher in 7th grade had all the students write their future self a letter.  She told them she would mail it to them when they were about to graduate.  Ethan didn't think anything about it until....a letter showed up for him from him. 

He thought it was the coolest thing, although he said his 7th-grade self was "cringy" but I love that his teacher remembered and sent them to him,  It was cool!