New Couches

We finally got some new couches!

We got rid of our old couch! It was very comfortable, but the fake leather stuff was peeling off and it looked horrible! Don't worry, we didn't get rid of Josh!

Jenna Fifth Grade Graduation from Arrowhead Elementary

My baby girl just graduated from Elementary School! I am excited to see my little girl move on, but I am also sad to close this chapter of my life. All seven of my kids graduated from Arrowhead Elementary School and so this school will always hold a special place in my heart! I am grateful to the amazing teachers and staff at Arrowhead! I will miss them! I will miss everything that accompanies elementary school -- the classes, the programs, the field trips, the holiday parties, the choir performances, the plays, the music demonstrations, the field days, the fun runs, the family weeks, the competitions, and even the Science Fairs! I will miss spirit-day on Fridays and the Halloween parade around the track. I will miss walking through the hallways and seeing art work on the walls. Arrowhead Elementary was built in 2005, the year my son Jared started kindergarten. So even though all of my kids graduated from there, he was the first one to attend all six years there, followed by all the rest of my kids. I will always have fond memories of the fifteen years my children attended Arrowhead! Farewell Arrowhead Elementary! We love you!

Because of restrictions due to Covid-19 the fifth graders had a "drive-through graduation." We all drove up to the school and hopped out of the car to take a picture of our son or daughter with their teachers, watch them receive their awards, and then take a few more pictures in front of the school. A few days ago this cute "Give Me Liberty" sign showed up in front of our house. So fun! Jenna made these cute little clay figures for each of her teachers -- one for Mrs. Sparks and one for Mrs. Ping. She loved both of her teachers! Mrs. Sparks had several of the Jensen clan pass through her classroom through the years. We will miss her! 

Clarissa's mom, Allison, sent me this cute picture of Clarissa and Jenna on their first day of school when they were starting kindergarten and their last day of school, graduating from Fifth Grade! I am so glad that these two are still best friends!

And some pictures of Arrowhead...

Covid 19 (post borrowed from Jen)

Oh ... the memes!

 *** Cousins Video ***

COVID Limericks:        (by Scott Westra 2020)

Because of the virus Corona

I’ve adopted a different persona

It’s not all that great

To self-isolate

And spend way too much time alona.

It is critical that we all get checked

To insure were not poised to infect

Be up to the task

And wear the darn mask

Or the economy’s sure to get wrecked.

Forgive my cough and my wheeze

Heaven forbid I will sneeze

Just don’t duck for cover

And you will discover

It’s just seasonal allergies!

The March and April Experience ...
This is sort of a timeline of events and things related to Coronavirus...going back to the start here.

•  As of April 30th in the US, there have been approximately 66,000 coronavirus deaths reported nationally and more than 1,100,000 cases of the virus in the US. Globally over 3,000,000 cases with over 200,000 deaths. Utah has just under 5000 confirmed cases (out of 125,000 tested), about 450 hospitalizations, and 50 deaths so far.
• On March 11, 2020, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz is diagnosed with Coronavirus. NBA season "suspends" the season, and that was just the start. All major and minor league sports competitions have been canceled as well as kids' spring sports seasons. The NFL draft was done virtually.
• By mid-March  panic had officially set in. The shelves in the stores were being cleared. People were stocking up on canned goods, bread, milk, beans, rice, baking supplies (like yeast and flour), toilet paper, water, hand sanitizer, soap, bleach, cleaning products, sidewalk chalk, etc. All of these items began to be difficult to come by, and most of them still are...with meat now being added to the list of hard to come by items. If you can find them, most stores have a limit on how many you can buy.
• Almost all businesses that can are transitioning to employees working from home (WFH).
• Schools started with soft closures on March 13th and kids are doing remote/distance learning from home. On April 14th, the Governor announced that school will not reopen for the 2019-2020 school year. All learning for the remainder of the school year will continue to be done online and at home. Class of 2020 graduates most likely will have virtual or delayed commencement ceremonies.
• Places of worship are closed or online. Our Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint Temples are all closed. Church at home is the new normal. Many missionaries (almost all out of the country) returned to their home countries to quarantine and await reassignment or are released early. General Conference was held with no congregation.
• Dental and other medical offices close to emergency patients only. Non-elective surgeries are postponed. Doctors offices begin using Teledoc and other phone/online options for many appointments. No visitors are allowed in hospitals, even if you have to take your loved one to the ER, you can’t go in with them, just drop off. There is a shortage of disposable masks and gloves in hospitals.
• Restaurants are open only for takeout, home delivery & drive through - this is encouraged, to support local business. Movie theaters, libraries, and other entertainment venues close. Gyms and salons close. Only "essential" businesses are allowed to continue with walk in sales. Many stores convert to online ordering and contactless pickup. 
• "Essential Worker" is a new buzz word. Grocery stores, hardware stores, gas stations and pharmacies. Amazon delivery windows average 3 - 4 weeks when they used to be max. 2 days. 
• In stores that are open, they are limiting the amount of people who can be in the store, and there are lines / tape inside the stores on the floors to keep people 6 feet apart. Markings on the floors to only go one way down the isles. Stores are closing early to disinfect everything. (24 hour stores are even closing by 6,8 or 9pm) Some stores have special early morning hours for senior citizens or high risk people. Store check outs, pharmacies and even fast food drive thru windows have added plexiglass between the employee and the customer. Have to reach around or under to pay! Some places will not even accept cash! Cards only to limit contact.
• Gatherings of people have been limited to no more than 100 down to 50 and then finally no more than 10. It is recommended that we “social distance” ourselves. Staying 6 ft away from anyone not in your immediate family or living in your home.
• On March 27, 2020, Utah was issued a directive to stay safe and stay at home. It is not an official shelter in place order but we are asked to restrict activities outside the home (except exercise) to only essential trips. No group gatherings bigger than 10 and must maintain social distancing of 6 ft.
• Playgrounds, school fields and sports fields are closed. Most beaches, national parks and some cemeteries are closed to the public. All festivals and entertainment events have been banned. Many summertime events have already been canceled
• Funerals limited to 10 people graveside. Weddings, family celebrations, and graduations have to be reworked.  People are doing drive-by parades, decorating cars, honking, etc. to celebrate birthdays and other big events.
• People are wearing masks out in public to prevent transmission of Covid. Some places REQUIRE that you wear them to enter (Costco as of May 4th). Sewing cloth masks for sale or donation to medical facilities, because there are no masks to be bought online. There’s a shortage of elastic for the homemade masks and most places now selling out of fabric. Face coverings are strongly recommended in public over the age of two.
• Most countries have closed their borders. No one is traveling for leisure. Cruise ships aren't even allowed to dock. Airports empty. Tourism has the worst crisis in history. The Las Vegas strip is closed! Disney has closed all of its theme parks since March, with rumor talks that they may not be reopening until 2021. 
• Wi-Fi and cell phone providers have extended their limits to provide connection to the Internet for people to continue to work from home and for students to learn from their teachers.

As of May ...

• On May 1, 2020, Utah Governor Gary Herbert moved the risk level from red to orange and allowed some stores, gyms, and some other non-essential businesses to open up with major restrictions. Restaurants are now allowed to open up for dine in- if they follow social distancing measures. Small groups of 20 are allowed if you follow social distancing rules. The goal is to be down to low risk (green) probably around fall.
• Society appears to be divided about whether or not we should continue to isolate or open back up and get the economy going. It's an election year and politics are messy and complicating this issue.
• There is talk that we might have a resurgence in the fall (or maybe sooner depending on how quickly we jump back into things). There is also no conclusive evidence that there is even partial or temporary immunity from this once you’ve had it. If we can get a vaccine, it is at least 6 months away if not more.

Happy Mother's Day!!

We had a great weekend! We have something we are working on for Father's Day and so we were all working on that Friday night. Then Friday night around 11:00 p.m. Janika and Brandon showed up! They had decided to surprise me by coming for Mother's Day! So that was a nice surprise! Janika brought us a mask she had made for me and Rick. I stayed up and visited with them for a while.

Saturday Janika and Brandon went swimming with the kids in the morning. Scott came over for a visit -- so that was nice! The rest of his family was off hiking but he couldn't because of his back. The family worked on our Father's Day project and then Jenna and I went swimming with Jase and Ellen. Saturday night everyone watched "Psych The Movie" in the basement.

Mother's Day was great! It was so nice having everyone there - except for Jared and we got to do a video call with him later in the evening. Josh taught a nice lesson for church and then Brandon and Jase and Josh took care of the sacrament. We then had a lovely meal of ham, cheesy potatoes, beans, corn, and salad for lunch and cleaned up and prepared for Mother's Day Tea!

Mother's Day Tea consisted of Dad being a "nose coach" with a covid-19 mask around his nose. He talked in this weird unintelligible way (I am not even sure how to describe it) while also signing. I interpreted for him part of the time but he said, "You don't need to interpret for me -- they can understand me just fine!" Which of course nobody could -- except me since I know sign language. His job was to teach people how to breathe.

Janika and Brandon were "vacationers." Jase and Ellen played the parts of Sully and Mike Wazowski from Monster's Inc. Janelle was a person who fell asleep in the sun. When she told me she was going to be a sunburned person I thought, "okay..." But she really did look like someone with an awful sunburn! (Thanks to some red paint mixed with water). She played her part really well!

Jaiden was Baljeet from Phineas and Ferb. She has been practicing her Indian accent recently. Josh was a zebra and Jenna was the devil. I wore Jared's track uniform and all of his medals and called myself "Jaredina" (Jared for short). I tried to be loud, excited, walk with a strut, show off my muscles, and take secret snapchat videos.

We took pictures and then had treats -- chocolate covered strawberries, cheesecake, apples, blueberries, yogurt, and ice-cream -- LOTS of sugar, ha ha! It was a fun time! After Mother's Day Tea Janika and Brandon headed back to Logan. It was fun having them here this weekend! Tonight we did a video call with Jared. He is SO funny! He had the whole family cracking up the entire time! It really made me excited for him to return home in a couple of weeks! I remember when he left for his mission -- I knew that one of the things I would miss most was his sense of humor!

Other fun parts of Mother's Day were reading all of the memories about mom that Chris put together and going through the new family blog that Jen put together! Mom and I texted and e-mailed a bit and I also talked with Mom Jensen for a bit as well. I called one of the ladies I minister to wish her a Happy Mother's Day and she kept me on the phone for an hour and so I didn't get a chance to call the other lady I minister for. I will have to call her tomorrow!

 

What was popular in the 1980's? Here you go!!

Since I have a little more time on my hands during this quarantine, I have been working on some family history projects. I am starting to digitize some of my childhood journals (or at least highlights from the journals) and making a timeline of these events to put into our shared family Dropbox. I found this entry pretty interesting:

October 18, 1982: My Grandma and Grandpa Norman were on a trip to Mexico. I was disappointed because I had to ask them some Genealogy questions for an English assignment. When my parents got home they helped me answer the questions, but my parents or grandparents couldn’t remember things like what foods they liked as a kid etc. So I am going to write down some things in case my kids need to use it…

The popular foods now are pizza, fries, coke…  I love pizza and sprite (I hate coke and Pepperoni and hot spices and stuff) but I do love pizza – yum! Popular clothes are Levi Strauss – Izod shirts, those kind of church shoes with the bows on them, knickers, bermudas, and vuarnet sunglasses. Also Jan Brady (white tennis) shoes – I love those and wear them a lot. Popular hairstyles are hair curled (flipped) up or permed. My favorite T.V. shoes are Fame, Different Strokes, Facts of Life – but I don’t really have enough time for T.V. these days – hope this info will be helpful!!

So when I was 14 years old I was thinking about my future children and how I could help them with their Genealogy assignments in their English class! Aren't I considerate, ha ha!! (First picture is at my Great Grandma Bohne's 90th Birthday Party in February). I just cringe when I look back at these pictures with at my big, permed hair! Jeni looks so cute in her childhood pictures because she kept her hair long and straight!)

Brandon's USU Graduation

Brandon graduated from Utah State University with a dual Bachelor's Degree in Marketing and Business Administration. Unfortunately due Covid-19 the graduation ceremony was cancelled but he was still able to get some pictures taken!

Janika and Brandon sent us a funny video of his "virtual graduation!"

Jenna's Timeline Project!!

In retrospect I should have told Jenna that she could choose "ONE" picture from each year -- NOT three!! Oh well, at least she had fun with it!