March!

Here we are at the end of March! This month started out keeping us busy but the end of the month made us slow WAY down! We've had some really nice Spring days that we've gone out and taken advantage of. We have tried to do a little shed hunting and on our first outing, we found two matching sets. We were super excited and made us want to do more and more!

The boys decided it would be fun to set out some raccoon traps and see how many they could catch. We have gone out every evening and checked them and have caught a few. They put up some trail cams by them also and it's been fun to see what animals are out there!

One nice Saturday evening, we went out in the hills with our friends (the Mangus, Anderson and Shumway families) and built a fire, cooked dinner, looked at some petroglyphs and hung out. It was a bit windy, but it was nice to be able to get out and enjoy the outdoors again!

I was able to get my second dose of the COVID vaccine. As a substitute teacher, I was able to get it through the school district. I had my first shot the end of Januarary and missed the second dose day in February because we were gone for state wrestling. The first shot made me have a sore arm for about a week, but that was it. The second shot pretty much took me out for a day. The day after my shot started out fine. I took the boys to dentist appointments, but within a few hours of being awake, I started to get body aches and fatigue. As the day went, I developed a fever and a headache. The body aches were probably the worst I've ever had! I pretty much spend the day on the couch sleeping! The next day I was pretty much back to normal, just didn't have much energy.

We had our annual St. Patrick's day dinner. We love corned beef and cabbage and every year I ask myself why we don't cook it more?! Maybe this year I will cook it more than once!

I have been subbing A LOT...like every day. One of the highlights is being able to eat lunch with my kids when I'm at their schools. At the elementary, there is a salad option at lunch for teachers only and Landon has heard me talk about the salads they make for the teachers and really bad wanted to try one. Our scedules worked out just right one day, that I was able to order a salad and trade lunches with him so that he could eat my salad for lunch. He was so excited and it was fun to have lunch with him in the room I was subbing in! That kid love his salads!!

The high school released their honor roll. Carson had a great first semester and we are proud at how hard he works!

Travis and Landon have started rec basketball and have been enjoying that. Travis also started track and is glad that he isn't sore any more after the first week of practice. But, all of that came to a hault on the 22nd when we found out that Christian had covid and we all had to quarantine. Who would have thought that a year later from the start of all of this COVID stuff, that we would be back in quarantine again! Over the weekend (so like March 19th), Christian developed a sore throat and some congestion, which wouldn't have really alarmed us, except his brother, that we had previously been around, had tested positive on the 18th. We pretty much stayed to ourselves over the weekend just to be safe and see if Christian started to feel any better. By Sunday afternoon, his sense of taste and smell were starting to go and we knew that this wasn't just a spring cold. I was supposed to attand a Stake Youth Fireside as part of my calling on Sunady, but decided I'd better not until we knew what was going on. We decided to keep the kids home Monday for two reasons: 1. Landon had not been feeling well either over the weekend and 2. We were trying to figure out what to do with the other two boys for school. Christian really didn't want to get tested, but we didn't feel right about sending the other two to school knowing that Christian probably had COVID (and they definately couldn't afford to just not go to school either). We tried and tried to figure out a way to get them in virtual school without having Christian tested, but knew there was really no way around it, so that afternoon, he went and got tested. Within a couple of hours he received a call from the dr and confirmed that he had tested positive and so our quarantine began! For the most part, Christian felt pretty good. He just had congestion and no sense of taste or smell and was pretty tired most of the time. We are so thankful that it wasn't any worse for him! He pretty much stayed in our room and came out occasionally with a mask on (the school nurse wanted to make sure that he could isolate, so we did the best we could realistically). Christian has to quarantine for 10 days from the onset of his symptoms and we had to for 10 days after his positive test. Because I had receive the COVID vaccine, they told me that I didn't have to quarantine, but I pretty much did. The schools and teachers have all been really great to work with during remote learning! They have been patient and have definitely gone above and beyond to make sure that my kiddos are staying on track with their schooling. The principal at the middle school (who is also our neighbor and ministers to us) delivered Travis' pile of work from school!

We have loved the drop off's friends and family have made, texts and phone calls and are sure thankful to have such great people in our lives! Our bishop (Bishop Grant) dropped off a two week supply of ice cream for us! The boys loved that!!

Our friends, the Felkins, delivered pizza for dinner to us one night! It was so nice to not have to cook for one of the nights!

Grandma Asay made several stops and brought treats, work from school, and groceries!

Grandma Foulger came one day and brought treats and stayed and taught us a new card game (since she already had COVID). It was fun to have someone else to talk to and hang out with for a couple of hours. Our neighbors brought over cookies one night too! We have definitely felt loved! Our days have mostly been filled with school, puzzles, movies, games and some playig outside when it's been nice.

Christian was able to go back to work today, and we are definitley looking forward to the 29th, when we will be out of quarantine!!