Starting the Year Right

Joe and I celebrated 21 years of marriage on January 8th. When you turn 21 years old, you are the legal age to drink, so Joe and I decided to get drunk for our anniversary. JUST KIDDING! We decided to escape.

We almost didn't make it, because a blizzard came in just as we were supposed to be leaving.

I've never seen them de-ice the plane before take-off, but I'm glad they did.

And where did we go? To get a little Disney magic, sans kids! We only went to the parks for 2 days, but it was enough. We decided to splurge and stay on property at Pop Century. We were in the 70's area, and also walked through the 60's a lot, since that's where the main building is. Super fun.

The first day we went to Hollywood Studios. We rode the new rides like Rise of the Resistance (we managed to snag reservations!), Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad, and Slinky Dog Dash. Most of the rides in the morning were walk-ons. We rode our favorite ride (Tower of Terror) twice, sang along with Frozen, ate a HUGE carrot cake cookie, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather, while taking it easy like the old people that we are.

The second day we went to Epcot. They were having the Festival of the Arts, and we enjoyed a little of the food booths (best chili relleno ever!), seeing all the art, walking around the world showcase, enjoying the great weather, and feeling our old age in our backs and feet.

They had a huge paint-by-number mural that you could help paint a little of (5 squares). I wish I could have seen the finished product, but they gave us a bookmark that had a rendition. Lovely.

We also had dinner at the Biergarten in the Germany pavillion. Great food, entertainment, and atmosphere. I highly recommend.

It was all over before we knew it, and we had to come back to the not so great weather. I'm pretty sure we spent the rest of January shoveling snow.

How I'm Different

These are ways that I changed in 2020. I started using Zoom, Instagram, and Marco Polo. I started posting memes to express how I feel, like the rest of the world. I get anxious now when strangers are too close to me, and annoyed when people don't adhere to the distance markers on the ground. I try not to judge people who wear their masks under their nose or not at all, and people who still support Trump. I sometimes attend church over Zoom, but I don't like it, but sometimes I fall back on it just because it's convenient. I'm educating myself more about racism, and trying to root out my own biases. I stopped using paper plates/bowls and plastic silverware. I became much more reclusive, and realized how important it is to NOT be. I became more patient - not perfect, but better. I got creative with my calling. I let go of some things that are maybe not that important, and held tightly to the things that are. I learned that sometimes things really ARE greener on the other side. I'm re-learning to count my many blessings. It was an interesting year, to say the least. Good riddance? Definitely in some ways. Well, in a lot of ways. But it wasn't all bad. Some of it was pretty darn good. Here's to changing some more in 2021.

Let's Get This Party Started

I've never put Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving before, but 2020 was different. We needed that holiday spirit as soon as possible, so we put up Christmas a week before Thanksgiving. I regret nothing. We even bought a SECOND Christmas tree, so we could have one in the living room and one in the family room, and somehow I didn't get a picture of either one. Cora was determined to deliver a lot of Christmas goodies this year, so we got started early. For the first time, I made old fashioned Chex mix, just like my mom used to do - I even baked it in my huge stainless steel mixing bowl, just like my mom used to do. The smell of chex mix in the oven is the smell of my childhood Christmases. We also made some homemade chocolate dipped mints, caramel popcorn, and toffee. We bought some cute tins from Dollar Tree, and had just started to get them all ready to deliver, when disaster struck. Joe test positive for COVID! One by one, we fell like dominoes. Joe had body aches, dizziness, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, fatigue, and a cough that lasted for weeks. I had body aches, headaches, extreme fatigue, hot and cold sweats, and sore throat. Cora had loss of taste and smell, sore throat, fatigue, and fever. Joseph had headaches, sore throat, and loss of taste and smell. Madleyn and Alex both had a sore throat and headaches. You can't deliver holiday treats when you're in quarantine for covid, so we were forced to eat all the treats that we had made. Forced, I tell you. The kids ended up missing the last couple of weeks of school, but managed to get their school work done online. Even Joseph, who still managed to graduate in December. Crazy. Joe was lucky that he was able to work from home on the days that he didn't feel like total crap. My friend Ilese asked if she could arrange some meals for us, and that was greatly appreciated, because there were a few days there that both Joe and I were in bed ALL day, and we were useless to worry about making dinners, or any other meals. Of course, it's nice that all of our kids are old enough to fend for themselves - I don't know how we would have survived if we still had littles. When our quarentine was up, Cora decided we needed to make MORE Christmas goodies - we still had a couple days until Christmas, and she was DETERMINED to deliver goodies to friends and neighbors. Sometimes I just let her run with her crazy ideas. So we got started. Again. More Chex Mix and caramel popcorn, and we made gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, and chocolate kiss peanut butter cookies this time. It was a lot of work, and on Christmas Eve we spent a couple of hours delivering them all. We may have saved some for ourselves too, because clearly we had not already eaten enough treats during quarentine. We also went out driving to look at lights when we were feeling better. Papillion is so great about lighting up the downtown area - it's really beautiful. And it's fun to go through the different neighborhoods and see what people have put up, especially the displays that are set to music. We got a good laugh at this special nativity.

For Christmas I got Joe and I matching Christmas pajamas.

With his beard, he's already half-way to being Santa. And he got me a Keurig Coffee maker so I can make hot chocolate in the morning. I've used it EVERY SINGLE MORNING. It's the best. Christmas was pretty low key this year, since we decided to make it a service Christmas. We let each of the kids choose their own charity they wanted to donate too, instead of just me picking it like I have in years past. It was a good Christmas.

How's the World?

I've avoided posting a Covid update, because it's all just so exhausting. Covid fatigue, they call it. The struggle is real. We were all in lockdown back in the late spring, but then things started to open up again. More stores, restaurants, salons, gyms, etc. We even started going back to church every other week, with the congregation being split up alphabetically. I get it, the economy was tanking. We couldn't just stay in lock-down forever. But we worried that when things started to open again, people would jump back into normal routines, acting like Covid never existed, not wearing masks, or social distancing, or taking necessary precautions. But slowly you saw more places requiring masks - even Walmart and Target. And some people were taking it more serious. And numbers started to stabilize and even go down again at the end of July and into August. Then people started talking about what to do about schools. The President threatened to defund schools if they didn't open in the fall. So in August our school district decided to start up again. They offered an online option, and those attending in person were required to wear masks. Social distancing was attempted where possible. Our ward started meeting all together for 2 meetings each week. Singing with masks was allowed. But a lot of people started holding large events that became super spreaders, and their were mask protests, and parties, and numbers started going back up in October. Now they're going way up, making our previous spike look like nothing. Of course, now that doctors and hospitals have more experience treating this thing, we're seeing less deaths. Still, it's no laughing matter. As of today there have been over 12 million cases in the US and over 260,000 deaths. In Nebraska there have been 111,661 cases and 897 deaths. Thanksgiving break at school just got extended. Singing was stopped at church. Cora's singles ward stopped meeting in person. We've already had 3 kids that had to get tested, and we all had to miss work and school while we waited for the test results to come back. So far none of us have gotten it, but I know plenty of people who have. Marie and Antione and their kids got it, and so did Lorraine. Who knows how things will go this winter. Everything is uncertain once again. So we wait. and watch, and do our part to be responsible and make good choices.

Even though sometimes coronavirus seems all consuming, there are other issues that have gripped us this year. There has been so much unrest in this country. Racism reared it's ugly head in a way that awakened a lot of people, and sent others to bury their heads in the sand. One more thing to divide our country. I haven't posted anything specifically about this because 1) it was all too much, and 2) as a very privledged white person, I didn't feel like it was my place. I will say that I have spent a significant amount of time trying to educate myself, listening to other perspectives, talking with my family, and trying to focus on love. There is so much more work to be done. But I will leave this quote here. "Love is the very essence of the gospel and Jesus Christ is our exemplar." - President Monson

And finally, this is a presidential election year, and what an election it has been. Ugh, I don't even want to get into it. Again, one more thing that has divided our country further. Why does everything have to be politicized? But it is. Trump vs. Biden. Widespread voter fraud and the election was stolen vs. Democracy is in danger when a lame-duck president won't concede the election. No lockdowns because there are worse things than this virus like tanking the economy and masks don't help that much anyway and freedom of choice is everything vs. Wearing a mask isn't about me and we've got to get this virus under control before we can properly address the virus and let's do what it takes to keep more people from dying. Systemic racism is a myth and all lives matter and blue lives matter and rioters are criminals and communists that just want to get rid of all the police vs. There is a long history of racism in this country and that has never been fully addressed and has had long lasting and far reaching consequences for people and it's time we do something about it and sometimes police are part of that problem and let's address that too.

Where do we go from here? Yesterday our prophet talked about the healing power of gratitude. "Counting our blessings is far better than re-counting our problems." He asks, will it fix all these problems? No. But it does sooth our feelings, and provide a greater perspective. It's a good place to start. I'm grateful for my body, and health, and science. I'm grateful for love, and learning, and the ability to change. I'm grateful for freedom, and agency, and diversity. I'm grateful for a prophet, and the gospel, and for a loving Heavenly Father, and my Savior Jesus Christ. Yes, it's a good place to start.

Kind of an Adult

My man child turned 18 this year. Things were low key for his birthday like everybody else's this year, but we tried to get him a little treat every day of the week, and then went to Guaca Maya (one of our favorite Mexican restaurants here) for his birthday dinner. Actually, that was the first time we had eated out as a family together at a restaurant since February or March. Crazy. When I registered Joe, Cora, and myself to vote this year, I completely forgot that Joseph would also be elegible to vote too! I hurried and got him registered, and we all went and voted together a few days early. I don't think he was too excited about it though. Probably because his options weren't that great. Oh well, he did it.

Here are 18 things to know about Joseph right now. 1. Favorite food - pizza 2. Favorite color - blue 3. Favorite TV show - Avatar 4. Favorite movie - Fantastic Mr. Fox 5. Favorite band - U2 6. Favorite game - Wind Waker 7. Favorite school subject - Psychology 8. Least favorite food - Olives 9. Least favorite color - A gross yellow 10. Least favorite school subject - anything with Mrs. Locks 11. Where he wants to live - Utah maybe 12. Where he wants to vacation - Germany for Christmas 13. Favorite candy - Reese's PB cup 14. What he wants to be when he grows up - a game designer 15. Favorite book - Ender's Game 16. Something he wants to learn how to do - computer programming 17. Favorite holiday - Christmas 18. His favorite thing about himself - I'm able to learn fast Okay, I guess a few more things about Joseph won't hurt. He is currently working at Hyvee (a local grocery store). He will be graduating high school NEXT MONTH! To say that he can't wait is a gross understatement. He is very done with high school. Depending on how things are going with covid at the time, he still plans to walk with his class at the graduation ceremony in May. After the holidays he will be working more hours, and trying to do a class or 2 online from the community college. Next summer he's planning to either put in his papers for a mission, or go to Snow College for a year with Cora and then go on a mission. I have a hard time imagining him out on his own in the world, but he's definitely tall enough, hahaha ;)

Happy Birthday Joseph!

A Socially Distanced Halloween

I bought 2 bags of candy for Halloween this year. I used 1 bag at the ward trunk-or-treat, and after just a few trick-or-treaters at our house, I still had most of the other bag. Yes, our ward still did a trunk-or-treat, but it wasn't at the church this year. It was at a member's home/property. No potluck this year. No chili cookoff or pie contest. Just a bring your own food type picnic, and try not to sit too close to anyone else. It was fine. Everything is fine. All the kids care about anyway is the candy, right? Madelyn and Alex went with me, but guess what? I didn't take a picture of them. Alex was a "hot stuff" chili, and Madelyn was a unicorn. I was a....skeleton? I don't know. You decide. People had a hard time recognizing me.

Then on Halloween the older 2 kids had a party with a few friends. Joseph was a referee, and Cora was a skeleton (same costume I wore). They didn't know that their friends would come in costume (sexy lumberjack, casual Avenger, Trump, and the Phantom of the Opra), so their costumes were very last second. They had a good time though.

Alex decided to go trick-or-treating with a friend in the "rich" neiborhood, and he scored big time. The most candy any of my kids has ever gotten trick-or-treating, and he got at least 5 full-sized candy bars. We had candy for weeks.