Interrupting Quarantines

I wanted to update this blog and you would think I could have done it by now.  I have only chronicled up to September of last year. But instead we are interrupting this regularly scheduled procrastination session to let you know about all the current happenings.

WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC AND THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES IS QUARANTINED! (NOT TO MENTION MOST OF THE WORLD!)

So whew, yeah- it's crazy out there.  It's not the zombie apocalypse yet, thank goodness, but we did see a guy taking a walk with his family carrying a rather large wrench!  Toilet paper- gone (we have enough to get us through the end of the year, however, because we are LDS.  Come on, we prepare!) Hand sanitizer- gone (we have lots of little bottles from Christmas when we bought out Bath and Body works), Clorox wipes- gone (we have a few stashed away), at one point meat, eggs and bread were gone too, Vitamin C- can't find it under $30 a small bottle, bleach- gone, hydrogen peroxide- gone, rubbing alcohol- gone, N95 mask that we need in the hospital- severe shortage, ventilators in the hospital- supply is strained, anything we need in the hospitals- severely strained.  People be crazy!

The culprit- a little virus that goes by the name of Covid-19.  I had my first known (that I know) positive case on Sunday.  He is currently in the ICU on a ventilator.  Hopefully my mask and goggles and gloves did their jobs.  The peak of the infection is supposed to hit in 2 weeks time so I am sure there will be more to come.

My team one day.  You can't tell who anyone is because we are all in blue scrubs and have masks on.    It gets pretty confusing some days.  There is a doctor, 2 techs, our secretary and 6 nurses in this picture.  We have been training the floor nurses in case we need them to come down and start helping in the ED.  The two that came down this day did super well!

Since the culprit is highly contagious everyone has been told to stay at home unless they are "essential personnel."  I am essential.  Rob stays at home and works from here.  All stores and restaurants are closed except grocery stores and take-out or drive-thrus.  Schools are closed and will not reopen for the rest of the year.  The boys will start online school in a couple weeks.  This week is officially spring break.  The poor seniors won't get a graduation ceremony or Prom or anything.  Church is at home.  We have had some really good discussions.  

Sam's girlfriend, Yvette, has been joining us for our church at home.  This is her drawing of Jacob 5.

The church was preparing us for this time for the last half a year when they went to 2 hour church and wanted us to have our own discussions at home with the Come Follow Me program.  

Life has slowed wayyyy down. 

Some of things we have been doing to pass the time:

After living in one place for almost 4 years, I was getting agitated with all the mess and the piles of stuff we don't use.  Until now, I have to go through that every 3 years as we move.  So we have been moving slowly through a deep clean of the house.  Currently we have these two closets done, the boys closets and chest of drawers, the baseboards, vents, yard, and game closet cleaned out.

We have done a little bit of homework.  The boys are going through an easy Sudoku puzzle in this picture for their math.

I made a mask, for just in case.  It's not nearly as beautiful as all the ones being made by tons of people to hand out to EMS, grocery store workers, Postal workers, etc.

I helped a local business.  They had to bring all their inventory home, so now they can only sell online.  It was a win-win situation, especially since they delivered straight to my door!

Lots of relaxing time is going on.  Doesn't this water look eerie?  It turned that color from one of the bath bombs Emma gave me for Christmas.

We take a walk every day.  We call it "our constitution."  The dog is especially grateful after a long winter when I refused to take a walk. Long being a relative term, because this is the desert so December through February.

We made a golf target with an amazon box and played each other to 200 points.  The biggest hole at the far end was negative 10 points, so Rob was winning, but then ended up not.

Yvette and Joseph won instead.

We also played a game of greed that night.  Sam won- we never did finish that game.

Max still has piano lessons- just virtually.

We try to go play tennis most days too.   And then there is the mind numbing hours we are on our phones and playing games on the playstation.  There is plenty of that happening!  And the amount of times someone wants to eat!  Why do they eat soooo  much food?  Rob always wants it cooked too.  Can't we just eat a salad or a peanut butter sandwich?  Nope.  Exercise, exercise, exercise.  It's the only thing that is going to save me.  Good thing we have a treadmill and weights, since all the gyms are closed!

Some of my favorite things right now: 

My gym- when it's open.  Love Chuze gym and their team training.  

Don't Miss This on Youtube and dontmissthisstudy on Instagram.  Love the way they teach and the points they bring out in the Book of Mormon

comefollowmestudy on instagram.  Great thought for the day 

Bedsideroundz and eddyjoemd and zdoggmd on instagram.  I learn something medical most days from these three.  

the Babylon Bee- best satyrical website ever.

codebluememes on instagram.  Nursing humor at it's best.  You won't get most of these or appreciate them at all if you aren't a nurse.

Mental Floss on the web or on instagram.  Fun facts.  I used to love their magazine when they put one out. 

My new car.  I love it!

It's a John Cooper Works Mini Countrymen.  It actually has tons of room in the back for the boys and it has 300 horse power.  I have already gotten my first ticket in it.  It's so zippy and fun!

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (We actually just finished it.)

Schitt's Creek on Netflix.  I kept getting it recommended to me, but I wouldn't watch it, because of the name.  I finally broke down and tried it.  I love it.  There is some language and sexual content that a lot of my friends and family wouldn't enjoy, but I think it's witty and fun and heart warming at times.

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist on Hulu.   Super heart warming, fun and great singing to boot!

Words with Friends 2 and Boggle on my phone.  Look me up if you want to play.

April Fools!

Today it was winter in New Mexico- no lie.  

It's been 70-80 degrees for 3 weeks, but today Mother Nature said, "April Fools!"

Sam's track meet was canceled after they ran the 3200m and the 4x100m.  Our girls scratched because they false started and then our boys scratched because they couldn't feel anything with their hands being frozen and dropped the baton.  Sam's race was up next when they decided to cancel the meet due to the snow!  That's right- Snow!  I had to laugh when I saw the Petroglyph National Monuments fire danger sign at Moderate!

Max however, completed his football game.  You think that's another April Fools?  Nope.  They have spring football here as well as fall.  We signed up late, but they let us on if we would go to the next town over to play with their team.  They have so few players that even when they let everyone they could sign up late, they still only have 10 healthy players and 2 sick ones.  We figured these guys have all played together since they were like 5 so it was about the only way Max would actually get to play.  He started on offense 

and kick return.  

He also played a little linebacker.  His hands were completely frozen when it was all done.  He couldn't even get his pads undone.

With all this winter weather it made me crave meat which I rarely do- so we went to the best burger around!  And we got to see a little Emma there!

What a start to April!

Getting a little Intense at Europeans!

Rain, rain, go away!  Come again another day!

First day of European track finals were awesome.  Sam made it into all the finals- 110m hurdles, 300m hurdles and the mens 4x400m.

They got first in their heat with the 4x400m and were second overall. 

I was a little mad at this because I knew that they would end up medaling and since Sam was only the sub in for the first day would not get a medal despite helping get them to the finals!  I think I ranted about that one for a little while!  Especially since he had run it all year long.  Even when he wasn't officially in the race, the same guy would drop out every time and Sam would run it in his place- every time!  I was super unhappy that the other guy would get  a medal in the end even with all that supreme lack of effort!  See things were getting a little intense even on the first day.

Second day we noticed that Sam and his "girlfriend" were avoiding each other.  I asked him if they had broken up and he said, "apparently."  He didn't even know if they had for sure and why! Turns out it just has to do with Sam being too boy and not knowing anything about girl!  He rarely talks to anyone during meets of any kind.  He likes to focus and be in his head- think Michael Phelps with earphones on the entire meet.  Girl didn't understand that much, but dealt with it, because he would give her a smile or a laugh every once in awhile.  But since this was a two day event with a night in a hotel, I guess she figured there would be time to be a girlfriend.  Boy was she wrong!  At dinner, Sam decided to go talk to another girl (I know **GASP**) and then when it was time to eat, he looked around and saw her surrounded by people.  He wasn't, as he told us, going to go push people out of the way to sit beside her so instead he sat down with the girl he had been talking with.  Yah, my son doesn't understand anything about girls- poor guy!  So day two started with a confused and sad Sam.  Sam was able to run his races before even more intensity started. 

He got 5th in the 300m hurdles and 7th in the 110m hurdles. 

Then the heavens open and poured a monsoon down 

on us.  The teams all went to wait in the gym while hail started along with the puddles of water coming from the sky.  We went to the commissary and when we came out the standing water on the ground was above our ankles and there was no sign of the sheets of rain letting up.  There were MP's out and cars flooded in the middle of the street.  

The MP's directed us to park in the farthest parking lot away from the high school gym, because there was too much water at the corner you needed to turn to go up to the gym, but the gym being uphill was definitely the better option for parking! So we pretended to head to the parking lot and then made for the corner.  Thankfully, we made it through the standing water at the corner and up the hill.  It was still quite the sprint to the gym.  My pants were completely sopping wet by the time I made it inside.  I looked like a drowned rat.  They still hadn't decided anything.  So I waited until they came back with the final decision to cancel the rest of Europeans.  There were some pretty upset people in that gym!

I ran back out into the pouring rain and got the family and we all sat around and waited until they had decided who won what.  They ended up using the best times of the year, including first day trials as the deciding factor on who got 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  The 4x400m boys team got a silver medal in the end and Sam got to be one of the medalies,  because the other kid hadn't run it any other time that year and because the semi-final run was their fastest time of the year.   So Sam went home with a silver medal, 5th, 7th, a monsoon and a broken heart all in his first year of running track.  

Hurricane Vacation

Storm #3 was a full on Hurricane, so there is no better way to show you it except a flurry of pictures.  First up- quick trip to Paris while the 18 year old, graduated Senior babysat!  Oh Yeah!  We got to see a few things on the list we had missed last time- like The Rodin Gardens.
The Thinker

The Gates of Hell

 We locked up our love and threw the key in the river

We walked where Monica would have walked when she came to do some University work in Paris.

 And we ran down south of Paris to see Versailles-  It was really hot that day!

The Hall of Mirrors

We came back just for a day and then headed out on another adventure.  Stopping first in Salzburg, Austria

The Kress family singers maybe?  A little Do, Ray, Me on the steps

 Mozarts Birth place

Stolperstein- stones on the ground that mark the place that someone used to live that was taken to a concentration camp.

We made it another place we had never been in Salzburg- in the caves inside of the cemetery.  It was cut into the mountains and had a church and some burial places.  

Next we headed to Tuscany where we spent some relaxing- if rather hot- days in this castle turned hotel.  

 We got the whole tower to ourselves and also had one other out building.

Our Room

 The swimming pool

A view of the valley

The kitchen

From here we went to Pisa

 and to Florence

 and Rob took his Mom and sister to Rome

  You would think with all that we would be exhausted and you would be right- but our vacation was just beginning.  Soon we were leaving on our Greek Isle cruise- Emma's Graduation trip!

We hit Corfu

 And Kefalonia

Mykonos

 Athens

These smooth stones up to the Parthenon where murder on the way down!

 And Montenegro- the port was next to a beautiful walled city with a hike up to a castle.  Rob, Sam and I were the only ones that wanted to do the hike (it was thousands of steps after all!)

 The boys dropped the tops pretty early in the hike!

Fun on the boat

We also hit Argostoli.
Then ended up back where we started- Venice.  With one day to explore we saw  the highlights

The Grand Canal

 The Bridge of Sighs

The Palace

We got a special trip out to the island of Merano by people who didn't know we would never buy their expensive glass.  This glass worker was amazing.  He made a glass horse like he did it everyday- which he very well could!

 We also made it out to the island of Burano

 St. Mark's Square

And with that we took our tired bottoms home!  So much fun, so much to see and do.  Love it!