*Monday Memos**

*MONDAY MEMOS*

   

 (If pictures are too small, just click to enlarge) 
Weekly recap of my rather crazy, insane, but fun and rewarding life!

dear monday, I got in four miles today. One mile running. The pond at Pioneer Park was so cool today! It was totally clear! I have never seen it like that before. So interesting!  Loved it! You could see the fish in it so well too. I took some pix of some gorgeous spring blossoms too. Spring is definitely the best season of the year!  I love it! The aromas are so yummy!  And the blossoms!  The earth is just so gorgeous in spring!

Carson face-times me a lot. Some days non-stop and other days I don't hear from him too much. He is tired of the quarantine. It is getting old for everyone. People need people!  I miss him!

 Dave has kept me well stocked with my favorite Idle Isle chocolates since my accident. I love the chocolate covered almonds maybe even better than the almond creme balls. 

Can you spy anything in this picture? 
Hint: they say "gobble gobble".

dear tuesday, today I got up and practiced the harp for an hour and then had my lesson. It went well. I feel like I am doing better with my practicing...aka "more time during quarantine".  I am getting ancy to get my pantry done, but I am impatiently waiting for some of the containers I ordered to arrive so I can get going on it. I did work on a puzzle today that McKay and Taylor had started. I have never been a fan of puzzles, but it was a bit addicting.  It is an Eric Dowdle one of Brigham City. Pretty cool because it has purple trees on it.  

Dave brought home lunch. I didn't eat much of it. I had lots to do today as far as errands. I had to hit Walmart for some gifts for Bryce. His bday is tomorrow. Wallies was pretty busy and I would say only about 25% of peeps had on masks. I was one of them. I thought it was "mandatory". Hmm.....guess not.  It should be though. The TP shelves were finally NOT empty!  Lots and lots!

I hear the Gov is thinking of allowing restaurants to open on Friday. I also had to take packages to Sky's and some stuff to Haylie.  I ended up ordering a Papa Murphy pizza while out. No one was home at Sky's so I decided to drive through cemetery to see if they were out walking. Luckily, I glanced down Grpa Jo's street because I saw Carson on his bike. I drove down there and stopped and chatted with all of them. Carson begged to give me a hug. Sky let him give me one. Best hug ever. Brinlee also gave me a huge one when I was at their house. So weird that hugs are no longer allowed! 

I came home and Taylor and I worked on the puzzle and then Dave came home. We all finished the puzzle! McKay was in Logan cleaning his apartment. We couldn't find one of the pieces. Kind of freaked out. But we ended finding it on the floor. Whew!  

We felt bad we finished the puzzle without McKay. We left the piece out we couldn't find for him to finish it!  Haha 

Posting this below (that I copied and pasted) so it’s on my memories in the next few years.....being part of history is stressful. I’m looking forward to looking back on this isolated time.

Today is Tuesday, April 28, 2020.

- We are (at average) at 43 days of social isolation. In the US alone, there are just under 1 million confirmed covid19 cases with 55,000+ deaths as of this morning.

- Schools have been closed since March 17th and are teaching remotely on-line. Schools will not reopen for the 2019-2020 school year.

- Only “essential” retail stores are open such as grocery stores, hardware stores, and pharmacies. Amazon delivery windows average 3 - 4 weeks when they used to be max. 2 days. No gyms are open, and it’s almost impossible to find weights, exercise equipment, bikes, etc.

- All extra curricular/ volunteer/business meeting and other gatherings are now on virtual meeting platforms i.e.(Zoom, House Party, Go to Meeting, Whatsap, Webex, Google Duo) the list goes on. Hang in there, life will continue and eventually, all together, we will get to a new normal!

- There are lines / tape inside the stores on the floors to keep people 6 feet apart.

- Bars and restaurants are open only for takeout, home delivery & drive through.

- Playgrounds and sports fields are closed. Most beaches, parks and cemeteries are closed to the public. No visitors are allowed in hospitals.

- All major and minor league sports competitions have been canceled as well as kids' sports. The NFL draft was done virtually this week. It was special.

-American Idol was done virtually this week.

- All festivals and entertainment events have been banned.

- Weddings, family celebrations, and graduations have been canceled. Funerals limited to 10 people graveside.

- People are doing drive-by parades to celebrate birthdays.

- Young kids can’t understand why they can only see grandparents & other extended family and friends on a screen or thru a window if someone visits in person or on Facetime online.

-Visitors are prohibited at nursing homes and assisted living residences.

- Hugs and kisses are not exchanged.

- Places of worship are closed or online.

- We have to stay away from each other more than six feet.

- Shortage of disposable masks and gloves in hospitals.

- People are wearing masks, some places REQUIRE that you wear them to enter! People are even sewing their own cloth masks for sale or donation to medical facilities. Illinois announced that as of May 1st, face coverings are required in public over the age of 2 where social distancing cannot be maintained.

- Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, bleach, antibacterial wipes and anything Lysol or Clorox is in short supply and limited per person.... IF you can even find them! (This goes the same for flour and yeast).

- Stores are closing early to disinfect everything. (24 hour stores are even closing by 6,8 or 9pm)

- Store check outs, pharmacies and even fast food drive thru windows have added plexiglass between the employee and the customer. Have to reach around or under to pay!

- You can't find isopropyl alcohol easily. .. the supply per person is limited.

- Australia, USA, Canada and Europe have closed their borders.

- Western Australia has been divided into 9 territories & an instant $1,500 fine issued for crossing the border without a valid reason. (Transport workers, Essential services etc)

- No one is traveling for leisure. Airports empty. Tourism has the worst crisis in history.

- Wi-Fi and cell phone providers have extended their limits to provide connection to the Internet for people to continue to work from home and for students to learn from their teachers.

- Many public pool access, concerts and summer activities will not be allowed/take place.

- We don't know if baseball seasons will start, hockey season will continue/end or any summer camps, etc. will run. Lots of teen/college summer jobs are up in the air.

-Colleges have not made definite decisions about whether to take their classes online, in person, or open at all for the fall.

-K-12 has ended their school year and plans to open for the fall have so many unknowns, social distancing, new guidelines for keeping everyone safe. How will it be scheduled? Can sports and activities continue as they have?

- Society appears to be divided about whether or not we should continue to isolate or open back up and get the economy going. It's an election year and politics are messy and complicating this issue.

Why do I post this?

Next year & then every year after, this status will appear in my Facebook memories feed. And it will be an annual reminder that life is precious & that nothing should be taken for granted. We are where we are with what we have. Let's be grateful.

dear wednesday, today is Bryce's 29th birthday!!!  He is turning 29 on the 29th!  His GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!  Not sure how he can be 29 when I am only 39!  (yeah that one is getting old! hah) Here is my FB post:

░H░A░P░P░Y░ 。*★•。* 。*。★
• ★。* 。*。 •★ ░B░I░R░T░H░D░A░Y░ to my amazing son Bryce 29 on the 29th today! Truly there is not a kinder or more generous human than Bryce. He would give anyone the shirt off his own back and expect nothing in return. He is one of the hardest workers I know and is constantly helping others. I love his adventurous spirit even though it keeps me on my toes (and knees) at times.🏂🏄‍♂️🏍🛩⛺️🏌️‍♂️🛹 Thank you Bryce for being such an amazing son and a genuinely good person. I am so grateful for your generous, kind and loving heart. No ones heart is as big as yours. We are so blessed to have you in our family! We LOVE you!🥰
😷Happy Corona Birthday!!!!😷

I got in 4 miles today. I chatted with my mom for about two miles of it.  She wants to have a party for Bryce but I have to keep reminding her...."Social Distancing".  It was a warm one today!  The high is supposed to reach 81!  Wow!  

They FINALLY came and hauled off the old motor-home. I am really not sad to see it go!  I'm glad I never gave it a name or it might have been sad. Haha Just kidding!  I got some great pix of it. That thing has been an eyesore for far too long and it was falling apart and had water damage inside. We should have done it long ago. We had to pay a lot to have it towed  even though we were donating it to Kars for Kids, but it was worth every penny.  I think we paid $200. One thing I will ALWAYS regret is that we didn't have a trailer or a better motor-home while the boys were growing up. We could have made a lot of memories in one. We paid $5000 for it when we bought it from Dave's dad and we didn't get our money's worth. It broke down practically every time we took it anywhere. One trip, Mont P. had to come and repair it while we were at Bear Lake so we could get it home. The bathroom never smelled good and it was something I wish we never would have bought. I wish we would have bought something nicer so we would have used it more. 

Bye-bye!!!

I made a cake for Bryce's birthday.  BTS cake. Haylie was making peach cobbler and so I got the feeling it would be good if I made him a cake. We took him his gifts and had some cake and then visited for just a little while. They were about to eat dinner and so headed out.

 Haha!

dear thursday, I got out on my walk/run fairly early this am.  It was the most incredible day!  It was overcast and just so perfect. It looked like it might rain but it didn't. I love days like this better than bright and sunny ones. 

Check out this amazing shot of the sun in the clouds...

 It's a heart!!
Love note from heaven!

 And Pioneer Pond was amazing again today. The clouds are reflecting in the clear water...

Someone nice wrote this on my route. Since the lockdown you see a lot of stuff like this around town. People post things in their windows too.

I looked everywhere for my headphones thinking I dropped them yesterday but to no avail. Dang.  I came home and after showering I made Amish bread and then got to work on the vacation posts I didn't have added in my blog books. I honestly thought I could get all four of them done. I didn't even get one halfway done!!!  Now you know why I never add my vacays on here. They take SO freaking long!!!  But it has been fun going back through our trip to Hawaii in 2011 when I turned 50 and went skydiving. I take so many pix that it just takes FOREVER!!  I am already burned out and my coupon code for 50% expires tonight. Oh well. 

We took in dinner to Dave's parents.  We ate roast and rolls and baked potatoes and broccoli and corn. 

I wanted to save this article to document:

Coronavirus Yeast Shortage!

All our quarantine baking has caused a YEAST shortage! According to Marketplace.org, one of the sites getting the most orders is King Arthur Flour. Their sales have been three-times higher than usual. But nothing has seen a bigger sales jump than dry yeast. According to Nielsen, yeast sales were up by 650% at the end of March. And no other grocery product experienced such rapid sales growth. Another yeast producer, Bob’s Red Mill, says they haven’t seen a run on flour and yeast since we were all terrified about Y2K, and what would happen when all the world’s computers hit dates that ended in double zeros. But yeast shortages are only temporary. The problem is, it takes a lot of time to grow, ship, and deliver a yeast order. For Bob’s Red Mill, it can take up to 50 days, from the time the yeast is grown until it appears on store shelves. And Fleischmann’s, another yeast maker, says, despite physically speeding up production at its plants, they’ve run into problems sourcing jars and paper packets to put the yeast in! So, if you’re trying to do some quarantine baking, you may have to wait for the yeast cells to divide and do their thing - but it will be back on store shelves.

dear friday, today I got out on a walk/run.  My ankle felt different. Hopefully that means a miracle?   :) But I decided to run and it felt so much better than it has. So happy but I did over do it a bit. It was pretty sore after. I came home and watched Women's Conf on line. It was so good. I then practiced harp and worked on my vacation Hawaii 2011 for the blog book but didn't get it done today and it was the deadline. Dang. And that is after they extended it for one extra day. These vacays take forever. Probably five days per vacay!  I take so many pictures!  But I will never regret doing that. Just getting them posted!  I did order my A Daily Beacon of Light and Hope thought book. I tended the Littles for a few hours this afternoon. We had fun. Taylor was so cute with Liam. Both of these cuties are adorable. We played outside and in basement.  I about died laughing when she held the book up. She had been reading it upside down. Hah!

 These Littles have my heart!

Liam kept trying to take this football and then he would hide it and say, "Daddy". He thought it was Bryce's because we gave him one too. So dang funny!

Earlier, Taylor helped me cut down some limbs on the tree that has been bugging me and Dave won't do it. He doesn't think it needs it. What???!!!  The limbs are hanging so low, you bump your head on them! I could have done it but grateful Taylor stepped in for me.

I got the books put on the shelf in the basement. Hill Cumorah is cancelled this year and they will do the final one next year. Now I have to get tickets! I was relieved but now stressed. Pat and I delivered treats (brownies) to the Sunbeams. We got to see Liam, Felix, Eden, and Ever. We missed Sawyer, Adalyne. They are so cute. It is hard to not get to see them each week. We had Maddox takeout for dinner and it was so good. We got steaks and mashed pot/gravy. Mmm.... but they forgot the salad. Loved it. I watched a bit more of Women's Conference.

dear saturday, today I got on a walk/run and I spent a bit of time meditating.  Felt good to get some quiet time and pray.  My ankle felt pretty good but not as good as yesterday. I got in almost 4 miles. Came home and showered and finally washed my hair. Hah I have been seeing how long I can go by just using dry shampoo or baby powder. I went over a week!  It felt so good!  Quarantine hair don't care. Carson finally facetimed me. He wanted to go on a walk so I headed over and we hit the cemetery . He spent a good 20 minutes or more telling me about a book they have been reading about Snow White and the Huntsman. I adore that little guy. There is truly something very special about him. 

The boys all went and played Frisbee golf. I stopped by for a bit to watch them but my ankle started to hurt and so I came home. McKay needed to get back too so he could go camping (hammocking with his buds). I guess the Gov now said you can meet in groups of 20 or less. Not sure I agree with it or not but businesses opened yesterday as well.  I worry that things will really get worse now. We have been so lucky here in BC. We only have 19 cases ( a new one yesterday ) and one death (Dee Pace) and so we haven't been hit like other places. Utah has 49 total deaths and 4981 cases and 418 hospitalized right now. Nationally we have had TOTAL CASES 1,092,81530,326 New Cases* TOTAL DEATHS 64,2831,829 New Deaths*

The boys went disc golfing. I ran over to grab some pictures.

 We smoked burgers on the Traeger again. They were good. Poor McKay had to have a lettuce wrap since he is still on Keto.

dear sunday, today was fast Sunday. Though I don't enjoy fasting, like At. All. I was fasting for a few special friends today as well as my ankle and that always makes it easier because when I feel the hunger pangs, I just visualize my friends and their health issues as well as my own, and it does help make it more bearable. I did my toenails this morning and then played a game with Dave and the boys. We played Swashbuckler. 

I bought it for them a while ago and thanks to Corona we actually took the time to play it. It is a bit like Risk, but I enjoyed it much more. I totally lost though. But it was fun. Carson facetimed me during it and he got such a sad face and I asked him if he was sad and he had tears. I felt so bad. I asked what was wrong and he told me that he missed me. I saw him yesterday and they are coming over later today and so I think he just saw the fun we were having and felt sad he was missing out. I sure love that little guy. Some shots of the house I took. I am planning on re-decorating this room once I can shop again. 

 Dave's bro's Scott and Kevin showed up in the jeep Kevin bought and had restored to look like the old jeep they all drove to school.  It looks exactly like it!  When Scott got it, he painted it navy blue, but this is the original color.
Staying six feet apart. 

Dave used to drive it to school every day.  Pretty cool. 

 We took it for a spin around the town and on the mountain for a minute. 

Sky and crew stopped by and we smoked more burgers. I was nervous having them over but they were okay with it, so I was happy they came. This thing can't last forever and even if it does you have to go on living life!

 We did smoke bombs and roasted marshmallows.

In honor of upcoming Mother's Day: ALL ABOUT YOUR FIRST BORN
1. Were you married? Yes
2. Did you have an epidural? Yes. It was the only one that worked out of the five boys. The rest only took on one side.
3. Were you induced? No
4. How old were you? 23
5. How did you find out? Felt green so took the test
6. Did you want to find out the sex? It wasn't possible then, but even if I could I don't think I would have
7. Due Date? March 25th-ish
8. Did you deliver early or late?Three weeks early
9. Did you have morning sickness? Morning, Afternoon, and Evening
10. What did you crave? KFC mashed potatoes and gravy and strawberries
11. How many pounds did you gain? 24
12. What was the sex of the baby? Boy
13. Did you have any complications? No
14. Where did you give birth? Brigham City, Utah
15. How many hours were you in labor? 8 hours
16. How much did your baby weigh? 6 lbs. 15 oz.
17. What did you name the baby? Skyler David
18. How old is your baby today? 35
Come on mamas! Let's hear your story!