Family Birthday Party

 We had an early birthday party for Courtney and Grandma Oman.  Leigh Ann came down so we had dinner at our house on Sunday with cake and ice cream.  Courtney wanted a candy bowl cake so that's just what she got.

She blew out all the candles.

Then she opened her presents from Leigh Ann and Grandma/Grandpa Oman.  They gave her gift cards and cash, which is great for a teenager.  The card from Grandma and Grandpa played a song and it was hilarious to play with the card and make music.  It startled Courtney at first but then she laughed and laughed.

Anasazi Hike

 Courtney was in charge of the YW activity on Wednesday so she chose a hike (to physical distance but still be together).  She chose a hike that she had mountain biked on a lot...Anasazi.  It isn't too far from our house and it has a lot of places to turn around.  The girls look like they had a lot of fun and it was nice for them to get out and be with their friends.

Masks

We are required to wear face masks at work when we aren't able to physically distance from other people.  I have a really tiny office that EVERYONE seems to walk through (it's a shortcut to the bathroom and the faculty room).  I can take my mask off when I am alone in the office (the counselors can shut their doors and be physically distanced) but when someone comes in I have to put my mask on pretty quickly.  I shut the door to try and stop people but the teacher's contracts start this week and I can already tell that they aren't going to care if the door is shut or not. It's a pain and I hate it but it is what it is.

The daughter of one of the counselors is a graphic designer who works at DSU.  She was making masks for the college and decided to make some for us too. We figured that, with the masks on, the students aren't really going to know who we are, so she put our names on one of the masks.  The other one she made for us just has the school logo.  I decided I'm going to have to up my eye make up game since that's all people are really going to see. haha!

This mask is from the State of Utah and it's HUGE!  When I talk it falls down so it drives me nuts but at least I don't suffocate.

I really hope we get over this soon and can get rid of the precautions.  The Governor's mask order in schools is effective through December 31, 2020, at which time they will re-evaluate (unless they re-evaluate it sooner, which is what we are all hoping). Infection numbers in Utah are really low and, today, we only have 6 people in the hospital in St. George. We have a lot more who have recovered than who are sick and we only had 1 death today and it was a female over 84 years of age who was in a long term care facility.

The 1918 flu epidemic made it illegal to not wear a mask and masks were required for a period of around 6 months. Interesting to look back at history.

Elder Pack

 I love getting pictures from Ethan and from people in his mission.  This first picture is of Ethan and his trainer when Ethan first got to the mission.

This is a picture a member sent me one Sunday of the elders visiting her.  She said she really loves them and they are great.  It is fun to be able to communicate like that.  Notice Ethan's tie...it's the same in both pictures.  It's his favorite tie and one that, I think, he wore almost the entire MTC. haha!

Phone calls

Courtney takes a screenshot each time Ethan calls home from his mission. You can tell which ones are on Saturday and which are on Tuesday (p-day).  He calls us at lunch time on Saturday and he calls us at 7 am on p-day.

Neither one of them looks awake on the Tuesday calls. ;) 

He is doing really well and it's fun to hear his stories.  

Las Vegas

 I took Courtney to Las Vegas to go school shopping.  Things were so cheap with amazing sales so we made off like bandits. And since the time change is in our favor, we didn't have to go down so early in the morning so that was a plus!

We went to the South Outlet Mall and things were 50-75% off regular prices.  I think they are just trying to lure people into the mall to spend money.  It worked for us but, I will admit, it was nice not to have so many people in the mall.  The day started off kind of slow and Courtney didn't see anything she liked.  We wandered around for about 30 minutes before something caught her eye.  It was off to the races after that.  She was able to find a bunch of stuff that she really liked and we got everything on her back-to-school shopping list.

The only store that had a crowd was the Nike store.  We had to stand in line to get in (I think it was 20 minutes but Courtney "swears" it was only 5).  They had armed policemen at the door watching people.  I kind of felt like I was back in Guat. But Courtney found some awesome deals on Nike stuff that she wanted.  So it was a plus.  I tried to get her to buy this shirt, but she just rolled her eyes and moved on.

We decided that we should have gone to Vegas mission shopping for Ethan's suits after we saw these beauties.  And they were on mega sale so we could have saved a lot of money.

When we were finished shopping, had eaten at Cheesecake Factory, and we were ready to go home, we decided to drive by our old house...what a sad experience.  When we left this house it was fixed up.  There was a cut lawn in front with a tree in the center.  We had flowers planted next to the house and there wasn't tin foil in the windows and cars all over the side lawn.  I was so sad to see the state the little house was in now.  We spent so much time fixing it up and making it a cute house and now the poor thing is just abused.  It was sad.  And then....

we looked across the street and saw this...

Wow!!  I have no words for it.  Our neighborhood looked really sad and run down.  They say that neighborhoods have a lifespan, just as people do.  They are new with young families, then they get older and the families move on, then they are filled with rentals and people don't take care of them because they don't own them, and then the neighborhood dies.  It's sad to see.

I took Courtney up to see the Las Vegas Temple while we were there.  The gates were locked, obviously, but there were people outside taking pictures.  It was still pretty to look at.

We drove home in time for dinner.  It was a fun day and we got a lot done!

Success Academy Diploma

 It's been months but they finally sent Ethan's diploma from Success Academy.  I don't know why it took so long, but that's okay because we have it now.  Courtney wanted to model it and pretend like it was hers.