Major Water Mess

Today started as a kinda fun and normal Monday. Joseph slept over. He came home Saturday night, since he was free and approved to be released from the leper covid colony, and cause he was speaking in our church to share some of his mission experiences. Funny, he's been home 8+ months and just barely having his "homecoming" address, that's how this year has been though! We trust that he is no longer contagious. And we're really hoping it is true, since the little boys were doing some Insanity Cardio with Joseph in the front room. All jumping up and down and breathing heavy and sharing air. 

We also gave him hugs before he left for Provo, so yeah, fingers crossed. Hyrum took Joseph down, cause he had to pick up his college transcript (from the BYU Independent class he took to fix his failing grade from his sophomore year) and go deliver that to the School District so that they could fix his school record for his BYU application, which is due tomorrow. Hyrum has been working super hard, finished the course over the weekend and took his final on Saturday. He's done a great job fixing his GPA and we're proud of him. 

We talked to our missionaries a few times, they are doing good. Daniel wearing his spy glasses. 

So, things got interesting when I left for violin. Peter was asleep on the couch in my room, Hyrum was still gone at the school district, Wes arrived home at 2:45, Abi and Lily walked in around 3:15. Daniel said he wanted to go with me so I got him ready, I told Abi she was in charge of Peter, we went to the car, I picked up the girls at school as I talked to Mel and Ethan. I could have waited in the car, but Daniel wanted to get out, so we get out in the winter cold air. Brr! We see Owen walk by, he wanted to ride the bus home alone so he didn't come to violin and that was fine. Mel and Ethan got a kick out of seeing the kids at their old elementary stomping ground. They are all so little and so cute! Especially Owen walking by with his big backpack, winter hat and boots, and face mask on. Sophi, Natalie, Daniel and I head back to the car. 5 minutes into the route to violin, I'm still talking/listening to Mel and Ethan, and I get a WhatsApp message from Abi. I listen to it. "Hi Mom. There is something... that has happened... very major... in your bathroom. I just walked in here, and I will send you a video or photo of it, and I have no clue what to do..." Followed by this video: 

Did you catch that part where Lily yells "It's coming through!!!" What? "It's coming through!!!!!" then the video ends. I was like "Shoot..." and I told Mel and Ethan I had to go, there appeared to be an emergency at home.

I call back Abi - "Get towels, soak up the water, ring out the towel, repeat, just get all the water off the floor! Have you stopped the toilet? You have to jiggle the handle!" (It's been finniky for a few weeks, a new problem that I new needed to be fixed and now I'm kicking myself...) Then Hyrum calls. He had just gotten home and as he walked into the side room from the garage, it was obvious that there was a problem, as he saw water falling through the light fixtured in the ceiling... (photos courtesy of Abi, she gets points for documenting!) 

I tell him, "Get bowls, catch the water, swap out one bowl for another until the water stops, Abi's working on it upstairs, see if someone can help her! Do you guys need me to come back? I can turn around but I'll be 20 minutes, can you guys fix handle it?" 

We've had this problem before (Feb 2016). Several times before.... (Jan 2017). Once with a phone call from the kids at home (Wes in Sept 2017) letting me know that the water was ) letting me know that the water was coming through the light fixtures in the side room... so yes, here we are again. "You guys got this, right?" Our violin teacher texted to ask if we were doing in person or online today. I said in person, I was getting off the freeway. Followed by "...although my kids are calling me at home with a plumbing issue, we've got water dripping through the ceiling so I might need to turn around and head back home, but I can leave the girls for their lessons". I call Abi and Hyrum again, you guys ok for an hour? Is it under control? I think they've got it, they're not so sure. I go in to the violin lesson with the girls. Sophi was going to go first, but then she needed to go to the bathroom, so I whip out my violin and have a quick 5-10 min lesson, playing Bouree and getting some great advice. I'm hitting the notes, bowing is good, to work on the tone by practicing with my bow playing closer to the frog to help me get a better sound on, relax my wrist when I'm close to the frog, and to also be sure I don't get to close to the bridge when I'm on the D string, great stuff, I feel like I have enough to work on until January. And then Corey is texting me telling me there's an emergency at home, he's heading home, and I should head home too. So I tell Miss Amy thanks and Daniel won't come with me cause he wants to play, so I leave him there and hope she'll forgive me and I run home with plans to be back in 45 minutes to pick them up. Ahh! I wonder who is the guilty person who caused this water leakage. I am positive I hadn't used the bathroom, plus I know to jiggle the handle, plus I don't use too much tp. I walk in. It was worse than I thought. (These are all still photos from Abi)

Owen told me he thinks we should get a new house. 

Corey was home, he had just barely plunged the toilet upstairs. That's what I get for thinking Corey and I can have nice Charmin tp in our bathroom! Actually, I only bought it a few months ago because Costco was out of the Kirkland brand. Darn pandemic! Rona is to blame once again. The kids told me they had jiggled the handle and that it had stopped. I hope they really did. 

I get to work. Every bathroom towel is wet and thrown in our tub, but the floor is still soaked. I go and grab the swim towels. I'm still pondering how this happened and how it caused so much flooding so quickly? The only other people at home when I left were Daniel and Wes. Wes says he never uses my bathroom and hasn't for weeks. Daniel doesn't use tp when he goes #1, and I know he didn't go #2 cause he hollers for me to come wipe him, and again, I would have jiggled the handle AND I wouldn't have clogged the toilet. I continue to ponder as I mop up water. No wait, Lily and Abi had just barely gotten home from school. But was the toilet so fast that it would flow over and make such a big mess so quickly, that in 10 -20 minutes it was pouring into the floor below? A mystery we may never know until the next life, when God can finally give me the answer all my deep questions - "Who clogged the master toilet on December 14, 2020?" I trust someday this mystery will be solved. We'll see if any of the kids fess up. Corey didn't know what to do to help, and I'm the one who handles these special projects anyway, so I told him to go pick up the girls at violin. While he was gone, I ran to Home Depot for a floor fan, they didn't have small ones, just a big major one for $99, so we skipped the carpet fan, but I did get a new side toilet lever and our toilet is now fixed. Next time, I will remember that when it comes to water issues, do not "Use it up, Wear it out, Make it due...". I should have fixed the handle sooner. Lesson learned and noted in my brain and here. Fix it. Our house is now in a state of disaster, so I shall now go start another load of laundry and wash more of our big kitchen bowls and beg the kids to keep helping me get the rooms that were not attacked in a lovely state, so we can have a feigned sense of calm in a few areas of the house. (thank you Hyrum for cleaning the front room and loading the dishwasher!) The rest of the kids helped too, but Hyrum was my big life saver. Sorry to keep you from your BYU essays! I trust you will be blessed for your sacrifice. Life is still good, even with water damage, but I'd be fine if this never happens again. 

Melodie is 20!

Happy Birthday to Melodie in far away Indiana! We've got another 20 year old. I guess that means that we're getting old... We sure love her and miss her face! She was able to call and it was fun to see her, as always. We'll talk to her again on Monday. I'm sure she'll share in her weekly email what she did for festivities. Today she was happy to just see Peter and her little brothers and sisters. 

We did not have cake and ice cream here on her behalf. We'll have plenty of junk food soon enough with Christmas coming up in two weeks. People are starting to send around gifts and goodies. The kids want us to do something too, but I haven't gotten anything going yet. I don't think we can/should do our usual plate of baked good with covid, so we'll see. What else is going on here. I got a cute video of Petet and Sophi playing cars. Peter loves cars. He loves McQueen, Mater, Mack and all of them. We left our Cars dvd in Hawaii. I called to see if they found it but they said they didn't, so that's too bad. Now we're stuck watching Cars 2 most of the time, and that one really is so dumb. But Peter likes it. We have all the movies via Disney+ but we might need to fork out some money to get Cars 1 in dvd format again to save us from Cars 2. Today he had Sophi play crash the cars with him.

Once she started to play, he wouldn't let her stop, and if she tried to stand up and walk away, he'd pout and point at the barstool to tell her to come sit back down.

I love seeing the older kids play down to Peter and Daniel's level. They are all very good to Peter, and they are usually pretty good to Owen and Daniel too, even though O and D do get very loud and bothersome sometimes. But I love our large family and feel so grateful to have each of them in our life.

Sundown Runaround

It happens everynight... The sun goes down, and the boys begin to run around. They run circles on the main floor, screaming, chasing, squealing, laughing, wrestling, hitting, crying, making up, repeat... Peter is starting to get in on the action, which is pretty cute to watch...

They'll often wrestle in the front room, sometimes we can get them to go up into our room to fight it out, giving the girls more of a chance to practice their instruments in the front room or music room. Look at Peter taking on both of them! 

Pretty funny. He is starting to hold his own, it's cute. He's almost two years old, crazy. 

Tonight Corey and I went out to India House for date night. They do not currently have dine in, cause covid cases are pretty high here in Utah at the moment. We got take out and went to eat in the Sandy Amphitheater parking lot. There's an ok view of some valley lights from there. We talked about Trump and the misinformed Americans who support him. Sorry if that is mean, that is just how we see it - people are misinformed or uninformed. But then again some of them would say that we are uninformed. Corey knows more than I do, but I agree that Trump is a man without principles. I hope he leaves peacefully, but I don't think he will. He can't admit or accept losing, it goes against everything he learned from his father. That's one of my take away's from the book "Too Much and Never Enough" by his niece, Mary Trump. It was a good book and I believe her message. It also made me able to look on Trump with compassion. I still don't want him leading our country. Anyway, discussion for another day. Covid, election results being contested, sometimes it looks like the world is falling apart, but we are happy and thankful to be safe and have a quiver full of happy healthy children, even if they are crazy noisy everyday after the sunsets. "There's gonna be opposition, ain't no way around it." Of all the possible problems and trials out there, ours is a good problem to be blessed to have. 

Trumpeteer and Spies

Lily got Peter dressed up today, in prep for Christmas festivities I guess. He was wearing a cute little red plaid vest that we got for Wes when he was a 1 year old. Wes was a really cute toddler. Now he's a big brother helping his little Peter play the trumpet. 

Cute little boy.

So Peter was walking around all dressed up and holding Owen's trumpet and he was pretending to blow it - 

His trumpet imitation sound was pretty on point -

He was feeling proud of his trumpet skills. 

Tonight the little kids got all dressed in black and started running around playing spies. 

Wes doesn't count as a little kid, I think he was already dressed in black. 

But he joined the fun for a bit. 

I need a better camera that can catch these kids in motion. They seriously start to go crazy every evening it seems like. They run around and yell and play tag and scream very loudly, especially DanYELL. Nickname: Dan-yell-a-lot. (We stole that from our Moxie salesman). I've started to call this night time default activity "the Sundown Runaround". Owen and Daniel are like twins, and they get loud. The older kids usually don't help calm them down, but that's ok. I'm glad they have fun.

Isolation

Hello from Wride isolation. We're all still symptom free and if we stay that way, then the elementary girls can go back on Thursday, cause the school nurse there said that the CDC has changed the quarantine from 14 to 10 days. And we started isolating from Joseph on the 28th. I called the Jr. high cause Abi is super anxious to get back, but the principal there said that unless I hear back from a district nurse, she and Lily can't come back until the 14th. So either a few days or one more week, we'll survive. 

Melodie's birthday is Saturday, so today was crunch time to get her b-day package sent off. I ran some errands. I like my candycane mask. Red and black are my colors. 

I ran to Walmart to grab a few more goodies to stuff her box with... Rice Krispy treats are really good package stuffing - light and cushion-y. There's her address if anyone else wants to send her a b-day or Christmas gift!

...so then I went by the post office, where there was a long line... I waited for 25 min but it was going no where, so with 13 minutes to spare before I had to be home for the girls' 4:00 virtual lesson, I left. I took my chances and hurried by UPS, where there was thankfully no line, shipped it, and I got home in time for the lesson. 

Overall things are good here, we're doing ok, we're fine, but I will also admit that my mindset is not in the best spot right now. I'm feeling a bit stressed. mostly by our home. I'm hitting snooze and not following any of the things I learned from Holly. I'm not taking care of what have previously been my priorities, like exercising (I'm doing a few handstands each day and thassit) and I'm just eating whatever whenever, and our home is just messy and noisy and I'm not following through with the kids for chores or practicing. Tonight I played the violin for an hour and I felt better after that. But I probably need to read the Triple Whammy Cure or practice some dopamine/oxytocin fixes. I think I'll re-listen to Jody Moore's Happiness Fix. 

A few pictures from yesterday. I talked with Joseph, he's sporting a little bit of a 5 o'clock shadow. He said he'll have to shave it before he teaches the MTC tomorrow, but he can get away with it a little bit in his covid isolation down there. 

He's feeling fine, but is losing his senses of taste and smell, so he said that that is weird. But as for fever and stuff he's fine. He said he does feel a little bit like Bill Murray in this clip, ha! ...as he tries to get anyone who calls to not hang up on him and stay and chat for a while. 

Here's Daniel, he wanted me to take a picture of him with his special friend, Bear, who has been a good companion to Daniel for a few years. Bear was also called "baby" when we first bought him (on March 28 2018)

And here's a 4 min video with nothing impressive in it, that I took of Peter eating breakfast yesterday morning.

I decided to share it for the trademark Peter-isms that are captured: Holding a Lightning McQueen car (Peter always has a car in his hand), the way he says "Day-doo" aka Thank you. He can say "cereal" and telling me "no" about something, often when he's mad he'll say "Daw We!" which means "Stop Wes!" Which just means "stop" to everyone and anyone. He'll say that to me or Hyrum, we are actually happy when he says our name "Daw Hiwa", "Aww! He said my name!"

Cute little bed head. Cereal is Peter's new treat/ bribe instead of nursing and cause he doesn't use a bottle. So he gets cereal everyday "cause he's a baby" - that's what I tell the other kids if they happen to come down and want some. Nope. just for the baby, I've got oatmeal for the rest of you "yay...."

Much Ado

On Sunday's, Corey will often put on a history documentary or some classic film that the kids can learn from, like Jane Austen or Shakespeare. We watched Sense and Sensibility last week. Pride and Prejudice is also on the doc - we're trying to get Abi into Jane Austen cause we're gifting her a book that has her entire works for Christmas. They really got into Sense and Sensibility, so it's fun to talk about Colonel Brandon and Edward Farris and Willoughby and love and what to look for in a future companion. The kids understood more this time than they did last time we watched it a year or two ago, so it's fun. Today we watched "Much Ado About Nothing" and I was upstairs doing stuff, but Corey texted me this photo of Sophi who was getting really worked up about Claudio being tricked about Hero's death... 

She was worried that Claudio might kill himself over it - "Why can't people just tell the truth!?!"

The kids were really into the movie and enjoyed watching it, and Corey enjoyed watching them. Hyrum and Wes were being a little irritated by the girls' emotions: "YOU GUYS... We've watched this before! They get married!! So just relax!" She was feeling much sadness over nothing, ha! I'm glad Sophi feels deeply. I remember crying at movies, Corey does too. We BOTH cried at "Where the Red Fern Grows" when we were kids, we're going to spring that one on them soon! I also remember being really worked up as a kid when we watched "I Know My First Name Is Steven" - that one is super sad. I remember crying and crying in my bedroom, which was the garage at the time - so it was summer time in one of my early teen years. Anyway, yeah, it's fun to see the kids be culturally educated. Sundays are our day to make them watch movies that they wouldn't watch otherwise. But they're usually bored, and so they'll come watch. I hope to play games together more and/or to do more spiritual stuff, but we're trying. 

Christmas Prep

Last night on date night, Corey and I talked about what I've bought and what we still need for Christmas for the kids. I really think we have enough, plus I also really think we should keep to what we told the kids about our trip to Hawaii being our Christmas gift to our family. Still, I have bought somethings and I told him I'd go over my purchases this morning. So I woke up and first thing, while everyone was still sleeping, and moved all the presents from the garage into our room. I set it out in piles. Corey looked over it, and then said he was going to go shopping for a few more items. I decided I'd like to come with him, so I did. Yay, another date! Wes watched Peter, and was even able to work his magic to get Peter to be willing to get in the carrier! Corey hadn't had success getting Peter to try it last night. Wesley is the Peter Whisperer.

At Costco we probably bought more than we would have had either of us gone on our own. We got 8 storage bins where we can seal things up so the kids can't get at them. We got some chocolates for Christmas gifts for neighbors, a few more thermal garments for skiing, and of course the usual hoard of food. As we were checking out, the cashier said "That will be a half a grand..." yikes. Maybe we're worse together... So after Costco we went to Scheels. "This is where I come to feel better about spending too much money" Corey said. A thermal shirt at Scheels = $99, at Costco we got them for $10! Yay, we're not big spenders, we're bargain shoppers! Scheels is good for creating the value of different items, and then go find it at Costco. I am still really proud of myself and my $225 ski pants that I got at the DI for $10 (second pic there) oh yeah! Corey checked out mountain bike prices so he can be ready for next summer, also thermos' for hot chocolate so he's ready for next time he goes skiing. At home, we got a lunch meal ready to take over to Corey's parents for his dad's birthday. His sister was taking breakfast, we did lunch, and his brother did dinner and dessert tonight. They are good to their parents. I could probably do more for my mom and dad. I made them yummy hummus sandwiches, a Mediterranean salad (used the Costco salad kit) oranges, chips, and Corey went to deliver it. I spent the day blogging. I'm not done catching up recording all of Hawaii yet. I'm always behind on the blog, but that's ok. I've been good so far at getting everything down shortly after the new year, in time to get the blog book printed as Corey's annual anniversary gift. 

Quarantine School and All Negative

So, we're all home and in quarantine. It might last a 10 or 14 days, I've gotten different messages from the school districts. But no need to fear: Teacher Natalie is here!!

Joseph is isolated in the messy basement, which is where the kids usually set up "school" - so for yesterday Natalie set up her class room in the kitchen.

They all have boxes set on upside down on a barstool for their desks. These are the boxes/bins that were holding the Christmas decorations until I gave permission to decorate yesterday. Last night they were storage boxes. Today: school desks. Natalie's students Daniel and Owen. 

And class continued today - different day, but same "desks" and same clothes on these two boys.

It's ok though, cause we're not going anywhere. The kids have also been playing a Santa game where Owen is the reindeer and pulls them around the house, using a red santa scarf as the reins. Pics of them playing sleigh yesterday:

I don't think they deliver presents to anyone, they just go on a Christmas Eve test drive / joy ride around the house. 

They take turns being the reindeer and Santa.

So, we felt a little bad for Joseph being stuck in the basement. I was the chosen person to deliver food and pick up his dirty dishes. I thought he might be happier down at BYU, and if 3 of his roommates were positive for covid too, maybe they could all isolate down there together? I called BYU to check it out, the person I talked to said he should probably just stay here. Joseph was calling and asking too, and I told him he could do whatever he wanted to do - he was welcome to stay, or if he wanted to go, I was happy to take him down. Last night he decided he would prefer to be back on campus, and that they had a room for him in some apartments that they had dedicated to covid students, he just had to be there by 10 pm. So he packed up, we loaded up, did not give anyone hugs goodbye, I gathered some food to last him for 2 weeks if necessary, since he couldn't go to his room down there to get his food. He's set up with oatmeal, pasta, tuna and tortillas, he should survive. Then he sat in the back seat of the van and we drove down with the windows cracked. Have fun in the leper colony, Joseph! 

That's Corey's little joke, he calls it a leper colony. Joseph calls is "the island" like he's on survivor. The door was locked so Joseph walked around and I watched his 72 hour kit until he came and opened the door to get his stuff. It has been a little easier and less stressful with him gone, and I think it was the right decision because we all got our results back today that we are negative. 

That surprised me, I thought for sure a few of us would have it, and that I had it for sure since I've been around Joseph the most, but hey I'm not complaining. We are going to watch ourselves for symptoms and if any of us do show any signs of illness they will go get tested again. But as for now, we're all negative, and with the leper out of the house, we're going to wipe things down again and then we'll be clean and hopefully stay clean and the kids will be able to go back to school soon. I went to get disinfectant wipes at Walmart and didn't notice the 1 item limit they had. The lady at the self checkout was nice and let me take 4 even though I had 9 in my cart. I wonder when this pandemic will end. 

Of all the kids, Abi was the most sad to not be able to go to school. She loves her friends and dance classes. We were gone in Hawaii for 2 weeks, then gone for Thanksgiving break, the get to go back for 2 days and now we're locked up at home again! So sad. This is a pretty good trial to have, if you take a broad view of the history of the world and the variety of trials others have faced. This isn't Valley Forge, nor Martin's Cove. This is ok, we can handle this. A few other pictures and quote of the day - I heard laughing from the tree and Owen was over there but it was Daniel laughing, and I looked and didn't see him, but then got down on my knees and saw a little elf hiding in our tree, so cute!

And Owen's teacher asked for a picture of him sitting with legs crossed for a photo gift they are doing at school. So here's Owen's picture for that - cute boy.

The girls practiced violin today, hallelujah. We had practicing music be the thing they had to do before Corey and I would leave on a date, and thankfully the kids value their parent free time on date night enough that they practiced so that we'd leave. I have been struggling with getting them to practice or with having anything to motivate them and I don't feel like using threats right now. But today, after Corey got Lily to practice her saxophone for an hour, Sophi wondered if she could practice violin for an hour, and it was easy - 20 minutes of scales to my piano guys playlist, then 20 minutes of review, followed by 20 minutes working on her new piece, and voilà - you did an hour! That was easy! I practiced for 30 minutes with Natalie too, and did more on my own, so it was a really good violin day for me, yay. 

We went and got take out at Beaumont Bistro for our date - but first we went by and picked up a backpack kid carrier for Peter for when we go skiing. Corey found this on his own! A $200 carrier, used, but still in good condition, for $35! Way to go sweetie! Corey is excited for all of us to go skiing! Now that we have a carrier for Peter even he and I can go. I comment how if I carried Peter, I'd fall down with him on my back. Corey's reply made me laugh: "Well, you're better than nothing." haha. We had a nice dinner in the car. I had the beet salad. Corey's comment about giving tips: "Would you like to pay more? Allright." We also reminisced on our trip to Hawaii - Corey comments on why Hawaii was good "You can swim in the ocean for the 'this is legit' then come back and swim in the pool 'and this is nice.'" That was a great trip, we should have stayed there and away from all the spiking cases here in Utah! Oh well. It's still good to be back, covid and quarantine and all.

Life Lessons

Today was the day I came home from my mission 21 years ago. This is the only pic I have of Corey and I on that memorable day, along with two friends - friend from high school Dave, and my Snow college roommate Diana. (I should have gotten one with just Corey and I, but that might have been "too forward" of me, so we just played it like "we're friends")

I'm really glad that it worked out between the two of us. I had counted down to that day for over 18 months since I knew when the end of my mission would be, but I also had been looking forward to that day for 3 1/2 years. I've blogged a little bit about it before, December 2nd was the day my life with Corey began again, so it's kinda like also like a New Year's Day / New Beginnings Anniversary for me. It is also the day that one of my heroes passed away, the amazing Shannon Cloward. I gave her a shout out on social media as one of my heroes, for my Light the World post for today - 

I'm grateful for so many wonderful examples in my life. One I have mentioned before, but would like to share again, is Shannon Cloward, who passed away 9 years ago today. She is one of my heroes and is a Christlike example that I still remember and am inspired by. Her 10 Life Lessons seem very appropriate for today and what we are all going through! If one of her life lessons is helpful or applicable to you, feel free to share it in the comments

#1 - Always come to church

#2 - This is not my real home

#3 - Don't be scared about the future - focus on the day you're on

#4 - Read other people's accounts

#5 - Have an attitude of gratitude

#6 - Have confidence in yourself

#7 - Make it a priority to keep moving

#8 - Plan something fun

#9 - Life is a polishing experience

#10 - We don't own our problems, God does

#givethanks #LightTheWorld #lighttheworld2020

And then I put in the comments: 

Life lesson #3 - our son Joseph got covid results back today and he's positive. I am praying and striving to not worry or be scared - "Don't be scared about the future - focus on the day you're on" Today is a good day. My kids are all here at home with us and safe. We'll be isolating for 2 weeks, but we are so grateful we didn't expose any extended family over Thanksgiving. Today we are good, and I know God loves us!

So I shared that along with the 2011 blog post with more details of what she shared about each of her Life Lessons. She was just amazing. I always think of her on December 2nd - it's the day I finished my church mission, and the day she finished her mortal mission. We will all be called back home. 

And speaking of passing away - yes, Joseph got his covid test result and he is positive. We don't think he'll die, but I know covid is not a joke or something to take lightly. He slept in, and was feeling a little feverish when he woke up. He looked at his phone and he saw that he missed a phone call from Intermountain Health. (They only call you if you're positive). He didn't know how to check his voicemail though, so then we texted our pediatrician, and he said to call his office, so we did, and a doctor there gave us the positive news. Joseph didn't think to ask about Wes and Abi, so I called about them later and was relieved that they were negative, since they were both sick on Monday we thought they already had it.

Then I set about right away calling all the schools and let them know and that I was on my way to pick up my kids, cause we've all been exposed to someone who is covid positive. The school nurses and Health Departments from the school districts are going to call me, but we are staying in isolation for 10-14 days. I've gotten different instructions: Schools said 14 days, the hospital told me 10. But it also depends on what symptoms the rest of us show as the days progress. They wanted to know when we were first exposed. I said a week ago on Wednesday when Joseph came home from school. Then we were all together for Wed, Thurs, and Friday. On Saturday, Joseph told us that his room roommate Jared felt sick on Friday, went to get tested, and found out Sat that he was positive. Another roommate found out yesterday that he is positive too. Joseph said "I'm positive that I'm positive." And he was right, so we've kinda been keeping our distance since Saturday as soon as we found out about that first covid positive roommate. So I gave Nov 28th as our official exposed date. Joseph has mostly been in the laundry room doing homework and teaching the MTC, but Daniel, Peter (and I) have shared a bedroom with Joseph the past few days, that probably isn't good - I think I probably got it. When I called to get Wes and Abi's results today the nice nurse lady, Anna, set us all up to go get tested today. After we got QR codes to let us in, we all drove down. Lots of cars were already parked with big numbers on their windshields. The only number I remember seeing of the other cars waiting was "93" and I thought "Ohh.... we're gonna be here for a while..." Corey and I were both on hold for over 40 minutes.

Four of us got the tubes to do the spit test, kids 5 and under had to do the nasal test, lucky them.

Since Abi felt fine and just had a negative result, I let her stay home while the rest of us drove down to Alta View for our tests. The saliva test is hard. They want saliva/drool only, no mucus. I tried it twice but couldn't do it without mucus, so then after our long time on hold, we went over to turn in spit for Lily and the rest of us did the nasal test. Lily's saliva sample was perfect! I've never been so impressed with saliva. She didn't even have any bubbles! Wow. A probably not very useful hidden talent, but impressive nonetheless. 

Corey and I both called separately the number they gave us for the nasal test, and he got through before me and luckily we all were able to drive up together, so I got to hang up my on hold call. Corey and Hyrum in one car, the rest of us behind him. C and H did their test and H said it was worse than Walgreens and they left for home. Wes and I were next, since we promised not to cry and make the little kids scared. She passed out suckers to get everyone to trust her and with that Daniel smiled and got it stuck up his nose and he did SOO good, not a peep! I hardly knew he got it done, then he sneezed 3 times. He was standing up and looking over Peter's carseat. 

Peter was amazing, he just sat there working on his double fisted suckers and then he was done. His eyes were a little watery, but no tears. You can barely see Daniel's double suckers above Peter's head. Double suckers all around.

Next Natalie - she didn't like it and cried after, same with Owen. 

I think that was a sticker from someone's spit test on Owen's forehead. We wasted 5 spit tests - we got 4, only Lily's worked, I got two more so Natalie and I could try again, and they just became trash. Nasal test it is. Doesn't feel great, but it's fast.

Sophi did good. and then we gave them Lily's saliva and we were done. They cheered when I offered a prize of hardship ice cream after we got back home. "Yay!" Corey bought fries and a few burgers at Wendy's and they liked that too. "Let's do this everyday!" 

So, I vowed last week when we got home after Hawaii, that we would not decorate for Christmas until we were all unpacked and all the laundry was done and their bedrooms clean and yada yada. Abi cleaned up while we were all gone getting our covid tests done, and then they cleaned their rooms, so I let them get out the Christmas decorations. They thus earned my blessing to decorate. 

Plus, we might as well, since it's likely that we aren't going anywhere the next two weeks!

Light the World - One by One

Merry December! Today is the first day of the Light the World Christmas campaign. 

Today was "Giving Tuesday" - "Give like Jesus did. Make a donation to charity, or volunteer with a local nonprofit and post a link so others can participate." Since it was the first of the month, we made our monthly donation to Operation Underground Railroad. It's one of the best organizations in the world! I love Tim Ballard and I love what he and his organization are doing for so many children in this world. Sign up for a monthly donation here. 

Some good news around here: No one around here threw up today. Little kids all ok and feeling well. Cute Peter fell asleep watching Cars today - 

Peter is holding a little metal car (Boost, I think). A toy car is ever present in his hand. 

I'm hoping we were spared the stomach bug that Wes, Abi and Lily had. I let Abi and Lily go to school today, cause they were feeling fine. Wes is still home and lying around. So good news is that kids are getting better from that. The not so good news is: Joseph found out tonight that another roommate of his tested positive for Covid, so we'll see if this leads anywhere. He spends all day in the laundry room doing homework or teaching his MTC class.

He has been sharing a bedroom with Daniel and Peter (and me), so... 😬 He'll get his results tomorrow. They said that they'll call if it's positive, or we can get the results through their My Health app if it's negative. So we'll see, good luck Joseph. (We're keeping our distance from him as much as possible).

Wearing a mask as he talked with Corey, getting some help with his computer programming homework

And now it's 1 AM and I'm in the closet. I blogged a little bit and have also been tinkering with how to do ABC books for Sophi, Natalie, Owen, Daniel, and Peter. I tried May 2019, and I'm looking again - trying to see if I can get my act together. I probably can't make them all ABC books by Christmas? I thought of it because of an email I got from some mom of a classmate of Ethan's who was making a small book for all the missionaries out, with pics of all the other missionaries and where they are. She used Social Print Studio's mini book, but after looking at what she did, that would definitely be too small for what I'm going for. I also want to make a blog book for Joseph of his mission. Maybe I'll do that for his birthday. Well, I'm going to go to bed now. Good night.