I hope everybody is enjoying conference!
Things are going well for us, just trying to adapt to staying home so much. Here are some general updates:
- Online school - The kids are doing well overall with online schools, especially now that both teachers and kids have figured out the technology for the most part. The total effort of learning seems to be about the same, but there are certainly some interesting differences (like Rella's sewing class). The kids all miss seeing their friends.
- Dance, speech, mandolin - It's amazing how much can be accomplished via Zoom/Hangouts/Facetime/etc. Because we did remote mandolin lessons while in California, Adria and her teacher (Ryan Shupe) were able to transition back to FaceTime lessons pretty easily. Calder's speech lessons aren't quite as productive, but still much better than nothing. Rella's video dance is probably the hardest...we don't have a ballet bar, and there aren't other dancers to coordinate with. Adria really misses soccer, so I try to practice with her often. So overall we're doing the best we can.
- Garden - Chris did a great job cleaning out the garden last year, for which we're so thankful. We've tilled it and have planted peas and beans so far. Some asparagus (that miraculously survived our renters) has started to peek out. We planted a bunch of raspberry plants...and deer promptly devoured all the leaves off of the plants.
- Alicia's photography - Alicia has had a break from photoshoots (except Jase and Ellen's wedding, which she did totally last minute), but she's been working on her website and researching home photography as well.
- Shane working from home - My work officially (strongly) recommends that everybody works from home, but still allows people to come into the office at their own risk. I get a lot more done when I do go into the office, but I'm trying to be a good example to my team and also just trying to be on the safe side by staying home for the most part. I got a second monitor, and a stand-up desk arrives next week, that should help a bit. It is nice to see my family on breaks though! SimpleNexus has been great at making remote work fun, by promoting things like kids waving 'hi' on conference calls, having push-up challenges and other activities, and ordering meals for families of all the employees on occasion. Luckily SimpleNexus is very financially conservative, and has a decent amount of money in the bank. One of our biggest competitors laid off 30% of their staff yesterday, we hope to survive without layoffs or other drastic measures, but we have a plan in place in case we do get to that point. Most of our customers (mortgage lenders) have more money than ever before because of the refi boom, so that is good for us, but there is still plenty of uncertainty. We feel very blessed to have our house paid off, and enough savings that feel fairly protected for the future.
- Food - With everybody home, we do the dishes a lot more than usual. We've been able to get most everything from the stores, sometimes a few things weren't available but we usually could get them next time we try. We have been ordering drive-thru/curbside delivery a few times a week for variety (and to support the local restaurants that need the business).
- Bass - Rella has started to learn the bass guitar, and it's been really fun to be able to jam together as a family. She's picking it up pretty quickly, and is working on songs like I Will (The Beatles), Change (Churchill), Stand By Me (Ben E. King), Please Do Not Go (Violent Femmes), Come As You Are (Nirvana), Another One Bites The Dust (Queen), and many more.
- Disney Plus - We finally broke down and signed up for Disney+. I was disappointed that the Mandalorian doesn't play the mandolin.
For today, we're working on a puzzle and some coloring pages while watching conference. Adria and I went mountain biking after the morning session. Our stake president in California, Dow Wilson, was called into the Quorum of the Seventy -- we're not surprised, he's amazing.
We hope you are all doing okay! Stay safe and sane in this crazy time!
Shane, Alicia, Adria, Rella, and Calder
From Wendy: Thanks for the update, Shane and Alicia! Jaiden and Jenna started doing their dance lessons on-line this week also. It is tricky! Their big concert is supposed to be the end of May, so we will see what happens by then! Jase’s former mission president, Elder Villanueva, was released as an area seventy and called as a General Authority Seventy. So he might be one of the speakers tomorrow. Rick went shopping early this morning at Walmart and got a bunch of groceries. He has been making bread and couldn’t find yeast last week but found it today. He said that the checkout lady totally had an attitude and was giving him a hard time because he was buying more than she thought was appropriate by buying two bags of rice and a box of yeast packages. Rick said there wasn’t a limit sign on the rice and he wasn’t aware that he should open up the small box to take out individual packages of yeast. Coming home with lots of groceries is a normal occurrence for our family on Saturdays; however, I guess if we do that now we are looked at as hoarders! That is interesting that they are having a worldwide assembly and hosanna shout tomorrow in conference!
From Mom: Good to hear from your family Shane. How are your garage shelves coming along? Do you and Wendy have to pay just as much for the online dance lessons if they aren't as good? Are you or Derek in Alpine School District, where someone hacked the elementary school classes feed on ZOOM and inserted pornography and a guy taking all his clothes off?
Rella’s dance is at a reduced rate. Yes, we’re in Alpine District, but luckily our schools haven’t had any “Zoom Bombers”. I’ve worried about that for my work Zoom account, as I have mine open with a very easy ID to guess.
Yes, I finished the shelves in the garage, thanks again for letting us use the truck! We hope to get a tree and some dirt before we return it.
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