Possibly Exposed

Friday my niece contacted me to tell me that she was being tested for COVID-19. As we had watched her baby on Monday, we felt it wise to self-quarantine. In hopes of maintaining some order and keeping the kids motivated, I presented a plan. I just wanted to keep their brains and bodies fairly engaged so we all didn't go stir crazy.

Strangely enough they are all currently on board. Hurray!

Michael had to go into work, but he also did some work from home. In the play fort. Because it was quieter. Note the 15 minutes music practice on the bribe chart. At one point a kid was playing the piano, another the ukulele, and another was using the Wii for exercise, all in the living room. All way louder than was necessary. Not all ideas are perfect.

Grace figured out how to video chat with friends. The laundry room was slightly quieter than the rest of the house.

The boys played Minecraft. Well, mainly Ethan played and Sam watched.

They played a lot of Wii. I was not happy when we were gifted a gaming console. We did not need another electronic toy. I have changed my mind. I love you Kim!! Oh how the mighty have fallen.

They've all been practicing music. Loudly. Volume control is not a natural talent.

Ethan and Libby are both almost completely caught up on homework. Saints be praised. Ethan is finally on track to finish his online math class. That is a minor miracle, as he had started the process to drop it a week and a half ago.

We also helped Aunt Amy paint her house. The kids were genuinely excited to go paint. We are a little stir crazy.

Or a lot stir crazy.

Today, right before we went to paint, we found out my niece tested negative! Hooray! The kids could maybe venture out of the house and yard! We could see a few people if we didn't make a big group and practiced social distancing. The world was our oyster.

Then we came home to discover the Governor had just issued a shelter in place order for the next three weeks. Which means we are back to being quarantined. For three weeks. I hope we all survive.

Instead of Broadway

Our touring Broadway production got canceled. We then tried to find an AirBnB in McCall, Sun Valley, Salt Lake, anywhere. We found an amazing one in Salt Lake and decided we could still go away for the weekend. Then the owner of the AirBnB emailed to state they could not take our reservation as his daughter had gone into labor, he was watching his 6 grandchildren, and his wife had the flu. As the apartment was in his basement, he could not host us. With a deep sigh, we changed our plans again.

We ended up at Wahooz with the two older kids. It was loud, filled with lots of kids, kinda fun, and very expensive. It would have been a lot cheaper if we had remember we have two nieces that work there that could have gotten us half price tickets, which we were reminded of by one of the nieces working. It was not a smooth weekend for us.

We did enjoy ourselves, though. Bowling was okay.

But the go-carts is what our kids were there for.

They waited in line lots of times.

So they could go zooming around and around.

This was their happy place.

So happy.

I personally enjoyed laser tag. Shooting my family brought me joy. 

We left after a few hours and went to dinner at Olive Garden, which my kids had never been to. They were pretty stoked for the linen napkins and unlimited bread sticks. It entertained me they enjoyed it, as I've always considered it a chain restaurant with a pretty bland menu. I'm glad we finally took them, but I don't need to go back.

After hanging out around the mall and Ross for a bit we headed back to Wahooz. They wanted to drive the go-carts in the dark! And they did. And it was fun.

They did the pukey ride, we did go-carts.  I shot them a lot at laser tag. Wahooz is much more entertaining after dark, I don't quite know why, but it was. We stayed until they closed, grabbed ice cream at McDonald's and headed home.

It probably wasn't as fun as our original plan, but it wasn't bad. It was nice to spend some time with just the teenagers. It's also a good thing we went when we did. Wahooz shut down just a few days later to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Corona is a Bully

Months ago we tried to get tickets to "Hamilton" (Ethan's favorite musical). We failed. A few weeks later tickets for "Dear Evan Hansen" (Libby's favorite musical) went up for sale. Michael logged into the virtual ticket line, waited six hours, and just managed to get four tickets to the show. None of the seats were together, it was really expensive, and it was in Salt Lake City. Despite all of these things, we booked tickets and happily made plans to attend. We enlisted my adult nieces to stay with Grace and Sam. We made arrangements to crash on a friends floor the night before the play. I squirreled away a wad of money to visit IKEA. I washed and vacuumed the car. Libby bought road trip snacks. Laundry was washed so it could be easily pack. We were to leave in less than 24 hours, and all was in readiness. We were to leave Friday at noon.

Thursday I got off work and got a call from my friend Whitney, the owner of the floor we were going to crash on. She was wondering if our play was still scheduled, as the mayor had just banned large gatherings. We were still hopeful, but guarded. Two hours later Michael checked the venues facebook page and discovered our play (and many others) were canceled, and then he quickly received an email promising us a refund. Within the same hour we got an email saying that all church and church activities were canceled until further notice. The news also reported that the Boise mayor has asked for no gatherings over 250 people until further notice. No play, no trip, no church, no nothing. Plans of months fell apart in a couple of hours.

We have a weekend babysitter but no place to go. Do we still go to Salt Lake and hit IKEA? Do we stay home and save the money? Do we try finding a more local place on short notice? I just don't even know. I have dissapointed teens. I have diasspointed younger kids who were greatly looking forward to hanging out with their older cousins. I have a dissapointed self who was looking forward to IKEA. Michael is the only way not horribly dissapointed, and that is because preparing for the Corona virus is making his job pretty demanding right now.

A uncommon cold is wreaking havoc! I truly understand why organizations are taking the precautions they are. Precautions were ignored in Italy, and the country is struggling with a epidemic, and don't have the resources to treat it. If we can slow the spread of the virus, our infrastructure can handle the illness. Our country cannot handle it, though, if we all get sick at once. I understand all this. I truly do. That doesn't change how I feel though. I think Covid-19 is a big bully. He threatens, and threatens, and threatens. And we don't really have any choice. We have to roll over and do what he says, or he might just kill our grandparents. He's a jerk. And he's made me very grumpy, and I (along with billions of others, I'm sure) feel powerless.

*Update* -- More things that are closed/canceled: Boston Marathon (my brother was due to run), Robie Creek race, flights, Disneyland, cruises.
All the German foreign exchange students at Borah were sent home. The other exchange students are on pins and needles about their future plans. The school district is announcing school plans later today.
The grocery stores have been emptied of cleaning supplies, paper goods, bread, and canned goods. Strangely, the one I was in still had fully stocked chip and cookie aisles.

Personal Progress

The Church chose to discontinue the Personal Progress program (a program for Young Women to complete between the ages of 12-18) in December. They gave everyone six months notice the program was ending. Young Women currently working on it were encouraged to finish up the program, if they desired. Libby was about half way through, and decided it was important for her to finish. She had several more ten hour projects to finish, and she had to read the Book of Mormon. She finished her projects in plenty of time. She just couldn't seem to make any progress in reading the Book of Mormon.

The week after Christmas found her listening to the audio version of it set at double speed. 

She was able to complete all her projects and her reading with a whole day to spare.  The Stake cooked dinner for the girls and their parents to celebrate those that completed their Personal Progress and gave them each a framed picture to take home.

Libby is very proud of herself for completing it, and I am as well. I never did finish my Personal Progress when I was a Young Woman.  I love to see my kids out-achieve me!

5th Grade Fame

Grace was so pleased to be chosen as one of the 5th grade students to learn about plastics in the ocean, and then present the information to the younger classes. She worked on her presentation for weeks!

Her school hosted this display of ocean plastics (made entirely out of discarded plastic) made by the students at Timberline.

Grace and her friend Callie presented to the 2nd graders. The second graders were very, very interested in how big the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was in relation to everyday objects. Grace and her classmate fended a lot of questions regarding it. It's as big as Texas, for those interested.

Grace even got her name on a poster in the hall. I am very proud of all her effort.