Friday the 13th of March was when the big changes started rolling in. I had the day off of work because Chase had the day off and I was going to do stuff with him. (But Corona virus happened and I was a little wary about everything.) So, i made my last post and we definitely did stuff together- at home. Just not my original thought of going somewhere and doing something fun. I did go to Macey's grocery store. They had their case lot sale going on and I thought that would mean that they would have a lot of cases of food. I am sure they did- just it was gone by the 13th. This was, I think, a couple days into the sale- supposed to last 2 weeks. Here are pictures of their empty shelves.
I think I was making dinner Friday and I found out that school was cancelled for 2 weeks. (You know it will be longer than that, but for now, they are saying 2 weeks.) At first all the kids were very happy about that. Then news came in with more information. It is a soft closure. School is still in session, just with all work being done online. The teachers were given Monday and Tuesday to figure everything out and get lesson plans together. They are amazing.
Saturday morning we started a "spring cleaning". We all cleaned our rooms really well, with dusting and vacuuming and opening the windows and letting the light in. Andre and I even changed the way our bed faced. Andre had a soccer practice. I told him to go because he has so much stress at work that he needed to get it out- and soccer would probably be cancelled so he better do it while he can. I was starting the making of pies for Pi day. I got a text from my co worker Hunter. He said that he was contemplating suicide. I was pretty sure it was just a call for attention but he does have a hard life and I can't let that go. I spent an hour or so texting him and trying to call his bishop to help. He went and talked to his dad so I could then let that go. I did go to a couple of stores. Alex and I tried to go pick up his Eagle Scout stuff. I wanted to get it before the Boy Scouts go out of business or before they closed for the Corona virus. But I got there and the office was closed on Saturday. Alex really wanted to go to the flag store. So we headed over there. This was when I wasn't going many places but still some. Alex is a flag guy and has a collection of 25 or 30 flags. On the way home I remembered that I needed one ingredient to make pies for pie day. So I stopped by a different store than I usually go to. They didn't have toilet paper either. Then I went home and made pies!!!
Strawberry, grasshopper, and chocolate mousse pies.
I think the boys and Andre started watching the Hobbit that night. I took my mom a slice of pie and borrowed her vacuum. Ours just stopped working and I wanted to finish cleaning our room. An unfinished project drives me crazy.
Sunday. This was the first week of doing church at home. Andre and I decided this plan: At around 10 we gathered everyone together and gave them their talk topic. We were focusing on the first vision this week. Everyone had a topic that was something dealing with the first vision. Then we all took 30-45 minutes to write a sacrament talk. Then we all came together, sang a hymn, and gave our talks. It was sunday school week and we studied Jacob. It was about 2 hours with the talk planning and everything. At 4 ish we went over to my moms house and had the sacrament with my mom and Joey. After dinner we did our normal thing that we have done on Sundays, which is introduce the come follow me for the next week- this week it was the parable of the olive tree.
We started a game that night. It is called Eclipse. This is a really long game. But it is fun.
I usually have Mondays off work so I was home the first day of no school. We went to get the scout store to get the awards. There are two steps to this. Go to the scout office and pick up the certificates and then go to the scout store and buy the awards. Because of scout downsizing the scout office is right next door to the store. Convenient. The scout office had a sign on the door- closed for corona virus. Dumb. Well I went into the store to ask what to do. They said that I could buy the awards because I had the postcard that had been sent. But I would have to get the certificate later. So that is what we did. We were going to do a Eagle scout court of honor open house like we did with the older boys- but... you know...
We got to talk to Jaxon! It was fun. His mission has been really weird of course. He is not able to meet in large groups and not having church etc... We really like talking to him. He is a great guy. Alex still had piano lessons. Family Home evening we watched the church movie for the Sherem story. Then we finished our Eclipse game- I think. We might have had to finish it Tuesday.
Then I took Tuesday off because my work did not need me and I wanted to be home. I asked if I could work from 7-10am or 8-11am the rest of the week. Tuesday was St. Patrick's day. We had Lucky Charms for breakfast and corned beef sandwiches for lunch. The exciting thing that happened was that Tanner got his braces off!!! I was so worried that they might cancel that. But he made it!
His teeth are gorgeous!!
That afternoon Chase and I went to physical therapy. Before we went, Chase and I walked around a church building. Just for exercise. Chase gets really cooped up since he can't move a lot.
Notice that he is putting his foot down on the ground and putting minimal weight on it. Last Tuesday he got the cast off and last Thursday was his first physical therapy. He had not used that leg for 3ish weeks. Just a few days later he is moving and "walking". It is exhausting though. So I followed him with the wheelchair and he got in it when he was exhausted. I think he was 3/4 the way around.
I am not sure what to do about physical therapy because we don't want the virus, but we want Chase to improve with his knee. This week might be the last. They said that they can do the physical therapy over the phone and I would be involved with moving to the next task. But I am not good at stuff like that. When they had him practice "walking" the first time he was scared and I was trying to hide how scared I was so he would feel comfortable to do it. It was a good thing that he had someone else to push him.
Then it was St. Patrick day dinner! We had our traditional rainbow pancakes. Last year that morfed into "make your own weird pancake shapes with colored pancake batter". Alex had a friend over and it will probably be the last time for that. (There is a lot of fear with a virus. It could be anywhere or on anyone. We don't care about getting it necessarily. We are fairly healthy. But I don't want to share with others and cause problems for them.) Anyway here are some fun pictures of us with our pancakes. We only have 4 squirty bottles.
Wednesday morning was just an ordinary morning. Andre left for work at 6:40 and I was leaving for work at 8. So at 7:09 I was just about to eat breakfast. I had the fridge door open when the sound of a large truck started, then my house started shaking, then it was shaking a LOT. My brain finally realized it was an earthquake. I just stood there holding the fridge door. I remember thinking- "whoa this is going on for a while. This could be big". I decided to say a quick prayer. (this probably happened 9 or 10 seconds into the quake.) It kept going and realized that I was still standing there holding onto the door of the fridge so I closed it. There was a crash behind me. It was nothing big. A piece of the blinds had previously broken so was just set there until we fixed it. It fell and knocked over a pot near the sink. Then there was a big crash in the pantry. Again, nothing big. There was a metal bowl that was set crookedly so when shaking came it fell. I started thinking about what I should do. Not once did getting under a table cross my mind. That is all that I have been trained to do. But I did not do that at all.
I started going towards Chase's bedroom. I knew he would need help because of his leg. As soon as I got to his door, the shaking stopped. I wasn't sure whether to go in because if he was asleep, I wanted him to stay asleep. But as soon as I thought that, a terrified voice called my name. Chase had stayed in bed. He thought about getting under his bed, but with his leg he didn't try. I got him up and we comforted each other. It was scary. Then Alex came upstairs with wide eyes. It had woken him up. Tanner didn't come out of his room. So we were talking about it, looking on the internet to see what we could find out about it.
Andre called and said that he was ok. They were all outside just in case of another one. That scared me a little. So we woke up Tanner. He said that he woke up during the quake, but that he tried to go back to sleep. We all got dressed with shoes on so we would be prepared if we needed to be. I asked Tanner to check the downstairs food room and see if anything had fallen. If not, to take anything glass and put it on the floor. I asked Alex to take the China and put it on the floor of the kitchen. I know it was probably too late, but sometimes aftershocks are big.
Then of course there were lots of calls and texts to see if everyone was ok. We saw on the internet that it was a 5.7 quake. Tanner was surprised that it was so long (I estimate 25-30 seconds). Tanner was awake for about 5 seconds of it. The kids started eating breakfast. This was supposed to be the first day of "school" for the kids. Seriously, how are they supposed to concentrate after that? We felt a lot of aftershocks. With one being fairly big- maybe a 3.8.
But after the kids got settled and it seemed like everything was going to be ok, I went into work late. I was worried that a lot of paint would have fallen, but nothing did. Nothing! I was surprised. At work I found out my boss wanted me to be there from 8-2 with 11-2 being the important times. So I thought about going home until 11. Of course all we did was talk about earthquakes. One of the customers said that he was in Japan in 2011 and there was a 6.0 quake and the next day was the 9.1 quake that had the tsunami. Then about 9:30. I got a text from a coworker who was at home. He said that he heard there would be a 9.0 earthquake any minute. I didn't believe it, but I was on edge with all of that earthquake talk. I decided to go home until 11. I sent Tanner to the orthodontist to get his retainer. It is a place that is about a 4 minute drive from our house. I was trying to help the kids with the lap tops that we borrowed from the schools. (They all had software that was blocking everything that the teachers had prepared.) The older boys were using the computers and Chase was playing the Nintendo Switch. (It was an earthquake day. I didn't care.) Then Andre texted me that they had been told from the South Salt Lake police department that there would be a much bigger quake really soon. This was passed on from the U of U seismology department. Ok, so I did over react because everyone knows that you can not predict an earthquake. But- you have to live my morning to understand.
I called Tanner and told him to just come straight home. Don't wait for his retainer- just come home. I texted my mom in a panic and told her to warn Joanna. Then, I got Chase in the car and drove into the driveway. Chase is mobile in regular circumstances but I didn't know what would happen. Alex and I started getting our 72 hour kits and putting them in the car. Tanner got home. (He did get his retainer- so that is good.) They finished that while I grabbed coats and blankets and our medicine/first aid. Then I grabbed some snacks and we went out to the car. I had completely traumatized Chase because he felt out of control. He could not walk and did not know what was happening. Of course I had told all of them there was a chance of a big earthquake soon so we were going to be prepared. Alex and Tanner thought I was crazy but were very good about getting the stuff together. Alex grabbed baked beans and a can opener "just in case"- because it was funny. Tanner went and got a bag of candy and some card games. The first thing we did was turn on some music and start a music party in the car.
I started texting again. I don't think I have ever texted this much in a day in my life. I was wondering if I should start warning neighbors when I got this message:
Basically, it said that there was no upcoming earthquake.
So... I left all the stuff in the car and kept it in the driveway. We got in the house and my boys were teasing me to death. I told them to blame their dad. Andre does not over react. So when he is worried, I will react! But he was having the same kind of morning with people at his work, all of the properties that his work owns, and damage to some of them. When someone got the message from the police, he had to act on it.
After I got everyone settled again, I went to work. Also, how do you do schoolwork after THAT? I told them to do what they could and not stress themselves out. I went to work and got busy with putting things away in the back. (Trucks come a couple of times a week and you put the paint on the shelves. I have loved the exercise.) This is a nightmare place to work in an earthquake. Paint cans are about 10 pounds and buckets are about 50 pounds. They are above your head. So every sound or vibration made me jump. Here are pictures of the back of my work...
My anxiety had been really high all day. I am not an anxious person regularly (but I have my moments). I had been feeling like I needed to be home with my kids during the school being out (because everyone knows it is not going to start up after 2 weeks. The latest news says that the corona virus will PEAK in July.) Also, I work with the public. So many people go into the store and any off them could have the virus. With all that had been going on, I decided that I would be done with work this week. I think I went to bed at 8:00 that night. I was exhausted.
Thursday March 19. This is Andre's and my anniversary!! 21 years. That is amazing. I sure love that guy. Andre left for work at 6:40 and I left at 6:55 (after I woke up Chase and got him dressed for the day.) Work was not super busy but there were more people then I thought there would be painting during a pandemic and an earthquake. The issue with my work is that there are many independent painters who work paycheck to paycheck. If we close, then they can't paint. So Sherwin Williams is staying open as much as they can. A lot of things had adjusted and a lot more will adjust. I talked to Mike (my manager) about wanting to have Friday be my last day. I went home and I decided that I did not want to make dinner. I thought doing curbside pickup would be ok. So we did get food from a restaurant. It is hard to know when to stop doing everything. Should I continue to go to stores, pharmacies, banks, doctors, physical therapy? I have decided that it will probably be getting worse soon, so for our anniversary (when things are still fairly normal) it was OK. It was yummy food. We did a family activity for our anniversary-- make temples out of sugar cubes. we used frosting for the mortar.
Then we watched the Hobbit number 2. It was a good anniversary. Even though we didn't do what we originally planned on doing.
Friday was my last day of work. It was from 7-11. I had to wake up Chase early again to get him settled- but that was the last day for that. Work was weird. I was trying to get the color wall all up to date before I left. I have been in charge of it for a year and a half and no one else really know anything about it. At 9:00 our boss's boss came in to our store and said that we are doing something new. No one could come into the store, we were doing curbside pickup. People can either call ahead or order while at the curb. It was kind of hard. I am glad I am not going to do that for the next few months. I have liked the job and I think I may go back at the end of this mess. But I am really glad to focus on what is important right now.
Friday I sent a package to Jaxon because we got word that they are not knocking doors or street contacting. They are really just able to teach those they are already teaching and member work, and teaching on video apps. I know they are home more and I wanted him to feel the love. I did get some supplies and paint from my work. Coincidentally, my last day of work was also the employee sale- 50% off. I forgot to buy it because at the end of my day we were busy being outside taking orders. So I had to go back to buy it. Then I went to Costco. I thought that maybe they had some things we would need. I wanted to stock up.
There was a line outside the store down the whole side and half way around the back.
Saturday I got my hair cut. I think this will be the last time for that in a while. Then I went over to the dry-pack cannery. I thought they would be overrun. But there was only one other customer. I had wanted to replenish our stock. I got sugar and pasta, they were out of potatoes, rice and flour. We have some, but I wanted to replenish it. I have let our food storage get too low for global pandemics and earthquakes. Tanner said, "you are buying more more food?" Yes, yes I am. We eat our food storage. It has only been the last couple of years that I have not stayed on top of it. So of course this is when we have emergencies. I came home and we finished our game and we decided to go play tennis. We got ready and out to the car and I realized how cold it was. This was not playing tennis weather. Then as we were driving, it started to rain. So we listened to a book and went for a drive. We ended up at the little reservoir that we like to go to in the summer. We went on a walk around it.
Andre was dressed in shorts because he was going to be playing tennis and being hot. But instead we had a leisurely walk around the reservoir and he was freezing. It was cold. I think around 43 degrees.
Across the water is the beach that we hang out on
The sky was amazing
Look at the view
Chase is trying hard to have a good attitude even thought he hates that he can't walk, run or explore like he wants to.
We watched the end of the Hobbit series. It is a good show. Then I wrote a letter to Jaxon. I don't worry about Jaxon getting sick, but there are worries. I just like to send him short little things when I think of them or think he would enjoy them. Or I might write a longer thing if I have been pondering a gospel question and have had some thoughts I want to share.
Sunday was home church again. We did the same kind of format. The topics were on the events after the first vision. Priesthood, Elijah returning sealing powers, book of Mormon, restoration of the church, and prophets. We chose these topics because President Nelson asked us to focus on the first vision and the events after the first vision in preparation for conference. Then we had a short Young men's lesson. I was a special guest in young mens. Church was about 2 hours again. It worked out great. We also went on a walk around the neighborhood.
Then we made art projects to send to Jaxon. It was a good time to be creative.
We just got out all the craft supplies and had to figure out what to make.
Mine. I found a frame and some glittery sequins and just glued them on. I will find a fun picture to go in it. He will really wonder what is wrong with me when he gets it.
Andre did some stamps with googly eyes.
Tanner made a circles collage with eyes and puff balls.
Chase was making little guys. I think from a game they play called Pikman. So it has a Pik joke.
Alex made a cool Arizona flag with stamps.
This is a common sight around here. Chase doing his physical therapy while reading. Notice that his brace is off and he is bending that knee! Great job to Chase.
So now we have week two of home school. I plan on adding fun and still letting them have free time. I also want to have them cooking and do a little cleaning. I want to have recess a couple times a day. I want to be productive myself. I want to study a lot of stuff for conference and start some projects that have been put off because there are not enough hours in the day. We will see how it goes...
This took me so long to write that I am not going to proof read it. I am too tired! Just read it and get over any mistakes.
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