Covid Negative and Set Apart

Had their been no pandemic, Ethan would be in the Mexico Missionary Training Center right now. Had their been no coronavirus, Joseph would be flying home from Guatemala today. It was still on our event calendar - "Joseph comes home!" He was to leave Guate 7am, fly to Miami, then Dallas, then to SLC arriving at 6:42 pm. We joked with him and each other "Hey, today's the big day!" But he's already here, but he's gone again. He's doing good in Cali though. But that is all what would have happened in another reality. If there had been no Covid-19, we wouldn't have thought it was a big deal to have a house full of sick kids. We've been here many time before, usually no biggie. But it might be a biggie this time, cause this is the year 2020 and it's pulling surprises on us. So we spent the day at home yesterday, laying around trying to recover.

We had to tell the kids friends and other people that we were on pause cause we might be part of the pandemic. Abi's flute lesson was online and Wes got to cancel going to LBB rehearsal (he was kinda happy about that). Ethan was supposed to be set apart as for his mission last night, but we had to be responsible citizens and let the stake leaders know that we might be sick and contagious. So that got put on hold. Ethan was gone with friends when we told him we got Wes tested and so his setting apart was on hold. He moaned "Noooo!!! I just want this to end!" (Covid to end so the mission and life can start again). I tried to call to get Wes' results, but it was all automated and told us to just wait if it hasn't been 5 days yet. Blah... well, good news came via text from our pediatrician at 11:15 - Wes texted negative! Yay!!! I didn't see the text until 12:45, and I hurried and called to let Ethan know. He hurried and called the Stake President and set up an appointment to be set apart at 3:45. Life is moving again! He decided to do a mission haircut. I was glad for my chance to give him one with the clippers, since he usually wants it done with scissors so I don't cut it too short. Today I was able to go all the way short though! It was much faster, which I appreciated.

I've saved us hundreds of dollars by being the hairdresser for all these boys and Corey for all these years. Go me. He was done quick, we called and texted our parents to let them know. My mom called me back around 3 and hadn't seen the text yet, so they hurried and got ready to come over. We all wore masks. Soon we had a new missionary in our midst!

Hugs for grandparents after he was set apart.

How do you feel Ethan... I mean "Elder Wride"?

He said he definitely felt different. "I feel like I have a target on my back..." Well, you kinda do, but you've also got extra angel body guards helping you out now, so you'll be good. He had his first MTC zoom at 4:30, so he got set apart just in time! He was off to the MTC in the basement. Ethan will be going to do MTC at Corey's parents house soon, as soon as we're all better. We enjoyed the rest of a mostly normal day, most of the kid have improved and hopefully we'll be back to normal tomorrow. Peter's being kinda a pain though, but that is his normal. He's Grumpy Peter!

Oh, and we bought pest control tonight! We got it from a door to door salesman for Moxie, which is a company I had never heard of before, but the sales guy was really good and happy he sold us on it. And I feel like we're kinda bffs so it was fun, his name is Daniel, and his nickname as a kid was "Dan-yell-a-lot" and we were like "That should be our Daniel's name!" (...cause his is soooo loud and yells so much. We often say we wish he had a mute button.) Also, our Moxie friend is a triplet and he met Father David and had a good chat with him which was funny. He had 15 kids in his blended family growing up so he loved that we are a big family. Corey called Joseph to have Joseph vet him, and then Ethan finished his online MTC and he came up and talked to him too and that was great to listen to, Ethan and I wanted to write down what he said cause he was telling E about being a missionary and salesman and about making a good life for yourself: At Moxie, they have a sales retreat every year but they only talk about Integrity and Gratitude there. The big 5 are:

• Integrity
• Gratitude
• Working Hard
• Keeping Commitments
• Persuasiveness

And he shared with Ethan and I how the Savior and Lucifer all have those bottom 3 qualities - they both work hard, keep their commitment (Satan keeping his commitment to fight against God) and they are both persuasive, so you can have those last 3 qualities, and those don't define if you are a good or bad person. Those top two are the important qualities that will make you GOOD and will lead to a happy life. So it was just great and I'm glad we signed up since we chatty kathy'd with him for over an hour. And we got his email so Ethan can email him. Maybe Ethan will be selling Moxie here in SL when he gets home - Daniel said there is no need to go to California. Also, Moxie Daniel served his mission in Redlands California so he knew Dewey and so they were able to talk pest control talk about how good both the companies are and how they compare and how much you make. Ethan did really good during his 7 week selling, he'd so really good at Moxie and Daniel sold us that Moxie is a step above the others. So "their trucks will be here in the neighborhood" tomorrow, ha, and with that we will hopefully be ending our Elm Seed bug problem, hallelujah. Bye little stupid bugs.

Our yard and home will be happy. Ethan shared a spiritual thought during scriptures tonight.

He did a good job trying to teach us, with the usual interruptions that come from our big group burping out all their little thoughts. Near the end, as Ethan testified of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Natalie said "What if it's not true..." Ethan struggled to keep his train of thought on track but also reply to her and said "...It is... No more comments from you..." Ethan and I after prayer, writing down the 5 things.

Looking good Elder Wride. He made it to bed by 10:30. I came in and studied a little about integrity. I went to go get Peter after blogging, These little boys didn't make it to bed on time...

Peter has learned how to say "Hey google" to Mel's speaker, it's cute.

It was a good day.