How long will the pandemic last?

 Last summer when we were in the middle of the pandemic, and it felt so discouraging for the borders to be closed and for all of the lockdowns and restrictions, I kept wondering how long the pandemic was going to last. I wished that I could ask President Nelson when it was going to end. I decided he would tell me that I can get the answer the same way he could - Ask God. Learn to Hear Him.

I decided to start reading conference talks to find peace. The first talk of the April General Conference was by Elder Russell M. Ballard. He said, "As we listen to the Spirit during this 200th anniversary celebration this weekend, consider what offering you will present to the Lord in righteousness in the coming days. Be courageous - share it with someone you trust, and most important, take time to do it!

I decided I was going to fast every Sunday for a couple months, and so I did. I fasted for peace in my heart, for the pandemic to end, for borders to open, and mostly for the temple to reopen so Hanna could go through before she left on her mission. 

My fasting and prayers were answered as I felt strengthened, and I was also most grateful when they announced that the Cardston Temple was going to Phase 2 on August 24. Hanna was able to go to the temple before she left to fly to Toronto. She had already started MTC online, so we were so thankful she could go before she left.

Here we are 1 year and 2 weeks into the pandemic, and it is still going strong. We can have no indoor gatherings, no sports or any events, church can happen at 15% capacity, restaurants and stores have limited capacity (except Walmart and Costco - there doesn't seem to be any rules there). It seems like there is good news, bad news, good news, bad news. Vaccines are starting to come out, and the numbers were going down in Alberta. Now they are going back up.

We just keep praying that some day the pandemic will end.

Hanna's Birthday

Hanna turned 20 in Brampton, Ontario. Her and her companion, Hermana Savanna Russell, ate pizza for Hanna's birthday lunch. And the elders (including Elder Mitch Olsen, Hanna's friend from high school) brought her some birthday snacks. Her recently baptized friends brought her a cake. The awesome family that she lives with asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner, and she wanted waffles, so they made her some. They had never made waffles before, so it was an act of love.

We sent her a birthday box with 20 treats or random things like bubbles or sidewalk chalk.

We had a few gifts that we opened for her that we will keep until we get back - a basketball t-shirt and a pocket knife. We did get to talk to her on video chat on her birthday. We love that kid!

 

Family Week 2021

Each year we get a week off from school for Family Week. Monday is a provincial holiday - Family Day and then Thursday and  Friday is teachers convention so we get the whole week off. In normal life, we would have a Southern Circuit Rodeo on Family Day, but not during pandemic shutdowns of no gatherings. Some years we are happy for the break, but since December 1, we had 3 weeks of online school, 2 weeks of Christmas break, 1 more week of online school, Lucy had 1.5 weeks off for testing week, and Carly had to stay home in quarantine for 1.5 weeks because a student in one of her classes tested positive for covid.

So Carly made a list of ideas of things we could do this week and one of the ideas was - Not do Nothing.

Luckily, Austin pulled through and made a fun week and it had warmed up 30 degrees from our deep freeze.

Monday they got to rope at Academy and then we took Grandpa and Grandma to Waterton and had a hot dog roast. (Monday morning I hurt my back doing nothing and was in a lot of pain).

Lucy had basketball practice on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. 

Wednesday and Thursday Austin took Lucy and Carly snowmobiling in Mountain View thanks to the generosity of Troy and Stacey Jacobs. The second day Jason, Piper & Max Janisko snowmobiled with them to the top of Pole Haven. They were a little nervous and timid at first, but Austin said they got brave and cruised right along.

On Friday, we went to Calgary and Austin gave Lucy and Carly each $200 to spend at Irvine Cowboy Store. We went out to lunch at Montana's Steakhouse and stopped at CrossIron Mills Mall and then headed home. It was actually a fun day, and we bought some things we needed.

On Saturday they went roping again and then they both went to friend parties on Saturday night.

We love our family!

 

February in Alberta

We have had a mild winter for the last few weeks, and then we had a week or more of a deep freeze. Carly had to stay home for 2 weeks because she had a student in one of her classes test positive for covid. The day she finished her quarantine, we went to Dairy Queen to celebrate even though it was -26 Celsius.

Brandon John left on his mission this week to Las Vegas West Mission after he finished his at-home MTC.

We went to a drive-by wedding reception for Harli Wilde (a girl Jill's age). It was -25 and no gatherings are allowed, but they did the best they could and had a drive by reception and a super cool fireworks show in the Thompson's field. It was impressive to make the best of this situation. Luckily the temple opened back up to phase 2 so Harli could receive her endowment and they could be sealed - at least it was warm in the temple.

Valentine's Day

 

Sweet 16 - Lucy's Birthday

What do you do to celebrate a 16th Birthday on a Sunday during a pandemic?

We started her birthday celebration on Friday and invited her friends to meet us near Waterton on Chief Mountain Highway to take some friend pictures. I asked Taneal Olsen to do Lucy's hair. We totally lucked out on weather in January - sunny, 3 C / 37 F with no wind. It was actually -6C in Cardston when we left home, but it was warmer in Waterton. It was still chilly, but as good as it can get in January.

Her friends looked so cute as they met us up there. Dana Schaffer, Kamree's mom, was our photographer. Friends that came: Taylor Heninger, Kamree Schaffer, Brooke Hardy, Skylie Holland, Allie Leishman, Hallie Pilling, Alyssa Bevans, Raygan Norton

On Saturday Lucy had a few friends over to hang out by our fire. The current pandemic restrictions are that you can have gatherings outside with only 10 people. Another weather blessing for a short time by the fire - it could have been so much colder or snowier.

On Sunday, we had sticky buns, bacon and chocolate milk for birthday breakfast. 

Then we got to watch Hanna give a talk in her Spanish ward. She did such a good job. This is definitely one of the blessings of the pandemic is that everything is on broadcast on zoom so we can watch things like this.

We grilled steak and had twice baked potatoes and skor cake for Lucy's birthday dinner with Grandpa & Grandma.

Hanna gets to call on birthdays, so waited until Hanna could call to open presents. 

Lucy's theme of birthday gifts was shirts - from me, Jill and Grandma Carol. We also gave her a backpack.

Happy birthday to Lucy - on to driving and dating!!!

 

January 2021

January events:

- Grandpa and Grandma Nunn celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Gatherings of any kind are prohibited because of the pandemic, so we had a drive by celebration. We were under a wind warning that day (of course Alberta had wind), so we had them sit on a porch at Mel and Kim Weston's house and people drove by to say hi. When we told Grandma the idea she said she was digesting the idea and then she pretty much said no, we are okay, we don't need that. Grandpa was for it, and we decided to do it anyway. 17 cars came with their friends - they felt loved. It was the perfect amount.

- New puppy Stella (from Heather Schmitke with the goal of training her as a cowdog)

-Lucy came upstairs ready for church in her new dress she had gotten for Christmas and she said, "Who am I?" Definitely Hanna's look alike.

-Restaurants aren't allowed to have people come in to eat, but they can do pick up, so we ordered dinner and drove to Twin Butte to a cute little restaurant and ordered Mexican food and drove to a look out and parked next to Grandma and Grandpa and rolled down our windows and ate dinner together. 

New car (new to us, Bonnie the blue Ford Escape. We sold Hanna's black pontiac grand prix and bought the escape instead. We will drive it until she gets back)