Still in Quarantine

Well... No surprise. We are still in self isolation right now.

Steven's hit the ground running with his students this week now that spring break is over. Lots of conference calls with his students and other staff daily for him on top of his usual lesson planning/assigning. I'm still working from home too. It's actually been quite nice. The dogs really enjoy having us home all the time as well. I take lots of pictures of them lounging around in the home office with me while I'm working.

We did go to the LDS farms in the area and help with a potato boxing assignment that was given to our stake. We figured there weren't going to be too many people eager to go out and help during this pandemic (but the church welfare services are needed now more than ever) so we decided to put on our face masks and gloves and go. It was nice to get out for a bit and to see a few other familiar faces from our ward. The church has doubled their orders for this month if that gives you a reference on how much this service is needed right now. 

Last Friday night we had a date night with some friends via video conference call. We did a murder mystery party together which was pretty fun! It was good to get to chat with everyone too and see how they are all doing.

This morning when we woke up we discovered about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. Ugh. We are so ready for warmer weather to actually be here to stay. When I got Steven up this morning I opened the window to show him (without saying anything). He grunted, turned around, and climbed right back into bed and threw the covers over his head and said, "I'll get up when it's summertime." That's about how I feel about it too. With everything being cancelled and the virus and the 2 (yes TWO) earthquakes that have happened in our area over the last week, we just want to at least go outside and enjoy the warm sunshine... Is that too much to ask for? 

On a happier note, we are all healthy and enjoying this time of slowing down and being at home. 

There's the few semi-loads of potatoes we boxed this week

Obi likes to lay on my feet under the desk while I work--especially when I have my little space heater running too

Murder mystery video chat with friends!!

I help Steven film his lessons for the week over the weekends

Saturday snuggles

Sunday sleepy snuggles with my Scooter

Obi wants to help me work--or intercept me to play instead of work...

My neighbor runs a little baking business out of her home and she had baked extra sourdough bread this week. So I bought a loaf and made these awesome french dip sandwiches with our leftover pot roast. Yum!

An evening snuggling up with my Obi. These dogs seem so sleepy lately!

One of their usual hang out locations while we work from home

Obi, again, under the desk by my feet. Sleeping away!

Steven moved their bed in the home office so they would have a soft place to hang while I work

Afternoon nap while I work

April 2, 2020 Spring Snow Fall... Our view when we got up this morning...

Worldwide Day of Fast

President Russel M. Nelson invited everyone of all faiths to participate in a worldwide day of fasting and prayer in regards for the Covid-19 situation right now. We participated in a 24 hour fast today in addition to our home-church routine we have been doing since we have been social distancing. 

Steven and I enjoyed our little Sunday service here at home. Again, Steven was able to bless the sacrament for us and then we followed that with our Come Follow Me study. I have noticed that our study topics have been particularly relevant for the weird time we are in. Today's discussion was on prayer which was very fitting for our worldwide day of fasting and prayer. 

We still are just taking these easy and staying at home. We only leave the house when the weather is nice enough to take the dogs for a walk. I think there won't be many more reasons for me to drive to and from the office to drop stuff off anymore, so we will just be home. I haven't put makeup on since Thursday (and I only did that day because I had a video conference call). This whole situation is surely really good for my skin and hair (since I haven't been applying heat to my hair either--I've just been letting it air dry). 

Steven is preparing his lesson plans to carry out doing virtual school for the rest of the school year. President Trump just announced that it is possible they will extend the social distancing guidelines until April 30th. That would mean we would be doing this whole stay-at-home thing for at least another month on top of the week and a half we already have been doing. 

So far we have been staying healthy which we are very grateful for. And the dogs have been incredibly spoiled having us home full-time. I think it may be a little bit of a struggle with them to fall back into our normal routine when we get back to that in a few months. 

Quarantine Day Number ??

Who knows anymore what day it is!! 

I've officially been working from home for almost a week now. My office was forced to close it's doors for at least the next 21 days due to Gov. Brad Little putting a "shelter in place" order into effect on Wednesday this week (at the time of writing this it is Friday 3/27/2020). Thankfully all the employees at the office are now authorized to work from home so no one there has really lost their job--except for our warehouse workers whom will have to stay home for the next couple of weeks without work.

This week was spring break for Steven's school so he's had a break from teaching every single day. He still hops online to approve content assessments for some students and does email. Today he's working on putting together lesson plans for next week and I'll help him film some videos so he can still virtually teach his students next week.

Today I saw on the news that we now have around 189 confirmed cases in Idaho state and 3 related deaths. None reported in my county yet--but they have only administered around 40 tests here. Surely the virus is here already though, so we all have to act like we already have it and stay home. Non-essential businesses are closed now. Only gas stations, hardware stores, and grocery stores are left open (and restaurants if they have take out/drive through available). 

I made a mask for myself for if I need to drop samples off at the office and I'll make another for Steven in the event that we need to go to the grocery store. We are really doing our best to just stay at home and eat the food we have here. But I want to at least try to do our part if we need to go out.

The dogs have really enjoyed having us home all the time I think. Obi snuggles in bed with Steven in the mornings while they sleep in and Scooter follows me around while I work. Currently, I turned a little space heater on under the desk in the office to warm up my feet and Obi decided it was his little den for the next while. So he's sleeping in front of the heater on my feet. 

Here's a few pictures from our last week or so of quarantine:

Obi and Scooter snuggling on the bookshelf by the window in Steven's office

Steven serenading the dogs and I last Saturday

Needed a pick-me-up treat!

Family time all on the couch together!

The dogs have been really snuggly this week. Scooter here is face snuggling at bedtime.

My homemade mask--there are 3 layers of fabric and 2 layers of interfacing inside. This won't 100% stop the virus from passing through, but it will help keep droplets containing the virus out. I've only worn it a couple of times when I was dropping some samples off at the office--no one was there, but I feel like I still needed to do my part to slow the spread.

Obi living his best life sleeping in

Obi has been really attached to us this week too--here he is taking a nap in my sewing room yesterday while I was working on making samples for work. 

Obi claimed his warm, dark spot on my feet while I'm working today. I had the space heater there to warm up my feet and he LOVES to be warm and snuggled up.

Another Day of Social Distancing

Steven and I are doing our best to try to practice "social distancing" during the Covid-19 outbreak. I last saw there are now 43 confirmed cases in Idaho state--which really means there are at least double of those that were not tested or not showing symptoms in our area now too. We really want to be part of the solution to the problem at hand so we are doing our best to just stay home. And if we do need to run to the store for something, we try to make it quick and keep our distance from others around in the store and use hand sanitizer and wash our hands immediately upon returning home.

We did however, go over to a neighbor's today to help them move some large furniture to their storage unit. We aren't in such a lock down yet that we can't go help those in need (thankfully). I hope that by a majority of people doing their best to electively quarantine themselves that we will never have to get to that point as other countries have had to do so.

Steven and I aren't really afraid to get the virus--but we don't want to be the reason that someone who would not be able to fight it off as easily (someone who is already ill or immunocompromised) gets it and becomes terrifyingly ill. I already feel bad when I share my cold with Steven--I would be a mess if I knew I caused such devastating illness on someone else.

We keep busy around the house though. Today we cleaned out Steven's office (which DESPERATELY needed to be cleaned). I have been trying to make time to get in there and sort through all the papers and stuff and put things were they belong. It always became such a low priority with life and everything that it just never got done. Well, enter being stuck at home for extended periods of time and everything extra other than work being cancelled. Hooray for extra time and energy to tackle some home projects! I have some alterations I need to do for a few people that I will work on in the coming few days as well. Always something to do around here!

The best thing about being home so much more is that I get to spend so much more time with my dogs and husband. Obi and Scooter have really enjoyed having us home and getting to go on little walks in the afternoons if the weather is nice. I think they are so used to being pent up in this house anyways so having the extra company has been wonderful for them. They help bring some joy and happiness into our lives as well. It's nice to have these two pups come lay by me while I read or sit in the kitchen with me while I make our meals.

Steven will be officially on spring break in the coming week so he won't be working as much at all like he was last week. He's really looking forward to a little break--especially since last week was so crazy jumping right into full-time virtual school. His school has decided to extend their virtual schooling for another week after spring break as well. It potentially could extend further than that if conditions persist as they are now. I honestly don't see them returning anytime soon, but we will see.

My company has even tested out working remotely and thanks to that being a success last week, the owners have invited any who feel more safe or comfortable working from home during this time to go ahead and do so. Just knowing that I am allowed to come and go from the office and work here at home as much as I want is a huge blessing. I know I can go in if there is something specific there I need to do, but as long as I will just be sitting at my computer, I'd rather just be home in my comfortable clothes doing that. I plan on playing my work week a day at a time and probably juggling back and forth from here and the office as needed. I'm hoping that this pattern of work will continue even after the virus has passed. It's been really good for morale so far from what I can tell too, so we will see if that continues.

We will be doing home church again tomorrow. I've really looked forward to our humble Sunday "services" here in our home. It's been a huge blessing that Steven is still able to bless the sacrament for us each week. I have felt the spirit more during the sacrament in the short time we do it here than I have much else throughout my life. Something about being able to do it together, in our own home, to feel the Spirit here with us is just amazing. I have struggled with buying a whole loaf of bread just for 2 of us to break 1 slice together for sacrament though (as we typically don't each much bread in our regular diet). So I picked up some frozen bread dough balls and each Saturday evening I will put one on a piece of parchment and cover it in the fridge to defrost and then I'll pull it out first thing in the morning to rise. I can then just bake it quickly in the air fryer and ta-da! Fresh bread for the sacrament without all the extra that might potentially go to waste!

Being home though, has posed a challenge in how I minister to my Young Women since we will not be meeting on our assigned Sunday or during the week for activities. I am going to make a small Facebook post tomorrow sharing some thoughts from what would have been our lesson this week. Last week my presidency and I delivered letters and a small gift to each of the girls too, to make sure they knew we loved them and to encourage them to continue to work on their goals. I'm sure the girls will be excited when we return to having our regularly scheduled meetings/activities again.

General Conference had to change again due to the virus too. Originally they just shut it down to the public, but now the Choir will not be in attendance (all the music will be pre-recorded) and the only people that will be in the room for the broadcast will be the First Presidency and whomever is speaking/praying at that session. It will be so different and so strange. But I can't think of a time when we need guidance from our church leaders more than we need them now. President Nelson released a comforting video about a week ago regarding the effects of the virus right now and offering hope during this uncertain time. I imagine that General Conference will offer a similar feeling of hope and that we can be guided to do the things that we need to right now.

So for now, we will continue our social distancing and try to keep ourselves occupied (and hopefully as productive as we can). It certainly has been nice to slow down and take all the extra out of our lives and really focus on what's important.

Covid-19 and What's Happening

A new strain of coronavirus (Covid-19) is running rampant now across nearly the whole world. Entire countries are on lock down and are begging their citizens to stay home. Thankfully the U.S. isn't on complete lockdown yet, but schools here are closed, restaurants are closing their dining rooms, and when possible people are being asked to work from home.

Steven and I are very blessed during this crazy time that we are both able to work from home. Steven's school generally does "virtual days" about once a month or so anyways so their curriculum is already set up for students to do their schoolwork from home. They have never done it for such an extended period of time before though. So this has been a true test in the effectiveness of their virtual days. He's been generally surprised at the participation of the students and only has a handful that haven't done anything since the school's been shut down (they originally shut down on March 13th). Their shut down was one of the first in the area as some of their students had come in close contact with the 2 Utah Jazz basket ball players that were then confirmed positive for Covid-19 after they had made contact with them. Most of the rest of the schools in the area only began closing down around March 17th-18th. As of today, I believe all the schools in our immediate area are shut down.

As for me and my work, we did a trial run of everyone working from home yesterday (March 19th) and we will return to the office today for any troubleshooting and for some feedback on how it went. It may be possible we will have to resort to all of us working from home for an extended period of time very soon. Currently, the governor of Idaho has only mandated isolation over 1 county that has now had it's first handful of cases that spread via "community spread" or from one person to another in the same area vs. traveling to an effected area. Thankfully this county is more centrally located in the state, however, we did have a confirmed case in Madison county by a BYU-I student who likely has now infected 3-5 other people in his apartment. The good news with this guy is that he showed symptoms before his return so he isolated himself immediately. So lets hope and pray that was effective enough to keep it contained to himself.

We are doing our best to practice "social distancing" and keeping mostly at home. We only go out if we need something at the grocery store or to take the dogs on a walk in the afternoons. I have dropped off supplies at a few peoples' homes but more often than not I just leave stuff on the doorstep as to not have close contact with anyone outside of Steven.

It's a trying time. Steven and I are enjoying being home all day with the dogs, but this week was supposed to be my Grandpa Tanner's funeral. Due to the virus restricting large gatherings, we had to postpone his service until later in the summer when it will be safe to get together. My mom and a few of her siblings, were able to get together Wednesday this week (March 18th) and do a small service to honor grandpa and dedicate his grave. Thankfully, my uncle was able to set up his phone on a Zoom conference call and a group of us that were not able to attend, were able to watch the small service. It definitely wasn't the same, but with the unfortunate situation right now this was the best we could do to honor him at this time.

On a different note, the church has closed and cancelled all church meetings and activities. This means we get to just do church at home. Thankfully, Steven has been authorized to administer the sacrament to us here in our home. We very much enjoyed that last Sunday and look forward to being able to do that again this coming Sabbath. This has greatly effected General Conference this spring. At first, they just recommended no one travel outside the country to attend live, then they closed it off to the public completely a short while later. Then Salt Lake County just released a law this week that if any group over 10 people gathers it is a misdemeanor by law. So now the choir will not sing live--they will show pre-recorded music--and the First Presidency will attend along with only those who are speaking in that session. This is all to be broadcast from a small room somewhere on Temple Square. Last General Conference, President Nelson did say this conference would be unique and unforgettable. I am not sure this is exactly what he had in mind, but we are rolling with the punches! This conference is to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the First Vision. I don't think this was the celebration we all had in mind (obviously it didn't surprise God), but we are so grateful for technology to be able to still participate in a worldwide conference that I think all of us need now more than ever to be inspired and lifted up during this sad time.

I worry about how this virus will effect the economy, but I'm trying not to dwell on that now. I'm just grateful and Steven and I have each other, we are still employed, we have plenty to eat, and we still have our faith. Everyday needs to be set in an attitude of gratitude so we can get through this--together.

Catching up! (Whoops!)

Yikes... I didn't realize until I logged in just now that it's been nearly 4 years since my last post. I am sad that I haven't been keeping up with this during that time as I won't be able to truly catch up on all the happenings in our daily lives. I really use this blog more for my own personal journal to record what we have been up to.

Since my last post, so much in our lives has happened. Steven got a new job as a school teaching spring of 2018 and began full time that fall. He is now coming up on completing his 2nd full year of teaching at American Heritage Charter School and loves it. Currently, due to Covid-19 aka the Coronavirus, he is now teaching full time virtually until school will resume after spring break (assuming the state doesn't shut down schools to extend that leave away, which as of today could be a possibility). Steven currently teaches all grades K-8 for P.E. as well as 11th grade and 7th grade English. Today he's working on putting together some Youtube videos to give direct instruction to his students (even the PE kids!) so that it will still seem more personal and to create a discussion board atmosphere in the comment section.

First day of school 2019-2020

First day of teaching ever! - Spring 2018

I'm still working at Fin Fun. I received a kind of promotion at the end of last year. I am now the "Technical Designer" at my company. I've been doing mostly the same things I did before but now I have a new boss, Seth Aaron Henderson (who was a returning winner on Project: Runway) so I get to do a variety of new things as well which includes more mainstream fashion projects than mermaid tails.

We still live in the house we purchased in my last post. We have loved living here and have been slowly making upgrades to our home as we can. We have given the kitchen a facelift--including painting all the cabinetry white and upgrading some of the appliances. We have purchased over the last few years a fridge, a dishwasher, and microwave. We have also purchased a new washer and dryer which has been SO nice! I didn't realize how much better having new appliances are!

We have also adopted another dog since my last post! Obi desperately needed a brother/friend to keep him company while Steven and I are at work. Enter: Scooter! We brought him home June 1, 2017 when he was about 3-4 months old. He was found on the side of a country road in Twin Falls. The people who found him believe he was dumped and left there to fend for himself. Poor little guy. He was just a baby! Anyways, Steven saw a friend of a friend on Facebook post about him looking for a new good home for him to go. We drove all the way to Twin Falls that night to pick him up. At first I was really nervous to bring him home because Obi seemed disinterested in him while we were visiting at the good Samaritan's home who found him. But that all changed when we got home--Obi was playful and excited to have a friend here at home. Scooter was nervous and so unsure of himself and he didn't know how to play. So Obi taught him. He taught him to play bow, to chase, and to play like a dog. Scooter warmed up to Obi quickly and I think Obi was grateful to have a buddy. We had struggled with Obi being destructive when we weren't home. He HATED when we were leaving. It broke my heart. The first night of Scooter being home he went right into the kennel with him and snuggled him all night--no contest to be in the kennel ever again! Who knew my social little puppy just hated being alone!?!

Scooter

Helping us do some spring yard cleanup

Just sitting... on the hammock

Obi loves Steven

Family summer 2018

I have also been called as the new YW president in our ward last year. I've officially been serving now for almost 1 1/2 years. The girls in our ward are amazing. I don't think I would enjoy my calling at all if it weren't for the bright, happy, friendly, strong testimonies of these girls!

My parents have since moved from my childhood home in Washington and now live just a couple hours away from us! It's been so nice to have them close so we can go visit more often.

In the summer of 2019 we also put a new roof on our house! Steven (with help from his family and a few members of our ward) did all the work of scraping off the old and replacing boards and reinforcing some joists and then putting new shingles back on. It was a huge job and we are so glad we will probably never have to do that again (at least for this house for a long time).

The crew working on the house

Steven and his dad getting the last of the shingles up

This year we will celebrate our 7th anniversary (wow!). It feels like it's been forever since we've been married and just like it was yesterday at the same time. For our 5th anniversary we went to Logan, UT (where we were married) and stayed at the same bed and breakfast we stayed at for our wedding. It was wonderful to have a weekend away. I'm hoping we can do something similar again this year as well.

Steven was also diagnosed with sleep apnea last fall. Now he gets the pleasure of wearing a very attractive mask to bed every night. But in all seriousness, we are so glad that we found a solution to his chronic fatigue. It was getting in the way of both of our lives so it's been better since he started treatment back in October. He's not 100% yet, but he is much more functional now than he was 6 months ago!

Steven's CPAP mask

Today we got to experience home church. A few General Conferences ago, President Nelson adjusted the Sunday church schedule and implemented a new "Come Follow Me" program which was home centered--church supported. Thanks to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 all church meetings, ward councils, youth activities, etc. are temporarily cancelled. This means that our bishops were instructed to give priesthood holders authorization to bless and pass the sacrament in our homes. This was a unique experience to be able to renew our covenants within the walls of our own home. Steven and I tried to follow the structure of a regular sacrament meeting as we could. We sang an opening hymn, said an opening prayer, sang a sacrament hymn (mostly me while Steven prepared the sacrament--he joined in when he was finished), then Steven knelt in our living room and blessed the sacrament for us to partake. I feel so blessed to still have the opportunity to renew my covenants with my Heavenly Father despite church being cancelled for the next month or so. 

After we took the sacrament we spent the next hour or so going through this week's Come Follow Me lesson. It was on Jacob 1-4 in the Book of Mormon. Steven and I had lots of good discussions about magnifying our callings (especially how we can do so with the social distancing the virus has brought on) as well as how to better our relationship as husband and wife. Overall it was a good spiritual experience and it strengthened the spirit in our home to be able to have the sacrament.
It's been a good 4 years. I really need to try better to keep up with this online journal of our lives. I'm so grateful for what I have posted in the past as it has reminded me of stories or things I wouldn't have thought of on my own.

Summer into Fall and Christmas!

Since is has been so long since I blogged last, this post will be a quick update on our lives to get us up to date here (and will mostly consist of photos)

My company sponsored a game for the Idaho Falls Chuckars this summer and because of that we got some tickets to the game! Steven and I aren't huge baseball fans at all but it was fun to go and see a live sport here in our area. We even got to witness a fight break out on the field which was kind of exciting!

We spent a good portion of our summer relaxing outside in the yard since Steven didn't have school or homework to do anymore we really took advantage of it!

Of course football season is big at our house. We put together a fun football food themed dinner for our season opener. (Unfortunately, our team did horrible this year--so we didn't make much of a fuss with any of the other games. We may do something for the Super Bowl for the tradition of it of course)

This summer we were so happy to have adopted our sweet little Obi!! He was about 4 months old when we brought him home. He was a puppy in foster care and we are so blessed to have this cutie in our lives! He is a great little companion to have around the house and is so sweet! He learns very quickly too--even though we have a lot of training left to go!

What a cutie!! He tipped over from being so tired just after this photo

...And he tipped over out of exhaustion--it was quite a day for him on his adoption day!

On the way to his fur-ever home!

First family photo!

Morning after snuggles!!

First family road trip!

Shortly after we adopted our sweet pup, we bought a house! Talk about huge life changes all at once!! We are so excited to be in a home of our own!!

My newest niece was also born this summer! This picture was from the weekend we spent in Boise for her baby blessing!

Playing with my pup!

Temple date and lunch afterwards!

OFFICIALLY CLOSED ON THE HOUSE!!!! 

For my job I had the opportunity to go to the U.S. Virgin Islands to be on set for our annual photoshoot for our new swimwear line! It was SO much work but it was quite the experience!

On the ferry from St. Thomas to St. John

Sunset from our villa

First photoshoot location

Some visitors by our set up

More views from our villa

This little guy greeted me one morning!

Behind the scenes!

Lunch break

Maho Bay

Maho

After we got to go snorkeling on our last day on the island!

Trunk Bay

Cinnamon Bay

Behind the scenes at an underwater shoot

The whole crew!
(From left to right)
Tanner, Jerry, Trina, Steve, Janet, Rose, Alex

And a crazy downpour to send us off!

Ferry ride back to the airport

 Thankfully I made it back home in time to celebrate Steven's birthday! Since we had JUST moved 3 days before I left on my business trip and I JUST got home the night before his birthday, we kept it pretty low-key. I bought him a german chocolate cake from the store and his nieces and nephews sang him happy birthday over the phone.

Just because my dog is so handsome :)

Steven and I wanted to give our new fireplace a face lift so he took the old grates that were on it and took them to work to sandblast and powder coat them. They used to have this old brass color on them that was chipping off anyways so I am glad he did! They look brand new!

BEFORE

AFTER

 None of the windows in the house had blinds when we moved in--the first set we bought were for our bedroom. I really like them!

We spent thanksgiving in Utah with my family this year. It was nice to see my family and we even got to take our sweet Obi with us!

While we were there we visited my aunt who just moved into a new house they built. She had a few light fixtures leftover that she didn't want to use and was SO kind and gave them to us to replace some of the old, ugly ones that were in my house! They are a great alternative to what we had before!!!!

Before--old dusty fan above the dining table (yuck)

New fixture!! Yay!!

So bright!!!

Steven's work offered tickets to the BYU-Idaho Christmas concert so, of course, we hopped on the opportunity!! We had an incredible time and felt very uplifted! David Archuleta and Nathan Pacheco came as a part of their Christmas tour!

My sweet boys!

New home all ready for Christmas!

Steven's sister sent us a box of snowman activities to do and since we had a few days off at home leading up to Christmas--we decided to make some of them. These were the melted snowman bark candy she sent!

Obi makes a good football watching buddy

<3

He likes to snuggle when I come home at lunch from work

Lots of snow at our house!

Obi was having a blast bouncing around in the snow!

Steven cooling down some soup I made so we could put it in bags to freeze it.

Road trip to Steven's parent's house for Christmas!

He thinks he gets to drive

Driving must wear him right out.

Obi loved his Christmas presents!

 We got to come home to even MORE snow after Christmas! There is probably around 20" of snow on the ground now! We had to shovel out some in our yard so the dog could have a place to go potty! It's about up to his head now!

Christmas Day!

He loves to snuggle up by the fire!

We have had an exciting last few months! Everything is still going well with work for the both of us (though, we really did enjoy having the last week or so off to relax). Steven just started working on his teaching certification and is hoping to get called in for an interview here soon (they are already starting the hiring process because they need teachers so bad around here!) He is hoping things work out so he can get a new job by next fall.  

Until next time!