Waiting For Coles Mission Call

Message from Sharlena last night -

The time has come for us to have a little fun guessing where the future missionary, Elder Noriega will spend the next two years! Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to have the gathering Cole initially wanted due to the Coronavirus. So, as of right now we plan to do Facebook live which will allow all family members and friends to be with us live in their own homes as he reads his call.

It could arrive as early as next Tuesday March 24th or as late as April 21st. Who knows -Everything seems to be changing daily. But the fun of guessing won’t change. We invite everyone to make a guess! If you’d like to place a little wager on your guesses it will cost you one candy bar per person. The person that guesses the closest geographically to where Cole is actually called will win all the candy. 

Start thinking about it and text us your guesses!! If you’d like us to pick up candy bars on your behalf feel free to Venmo me. We will send all the candy bars to the lucky winner!

Shannon -My guess is Houston Texas

My Guess is West Virginia - 

Baby Sitting Thomas Grandkids

Craig and I drove down Tuesday morning to start my shift baby sitting the Thomas grandkids for the week.  Tasha flew to Waco again this spring for the Magnolia market.  Little Winn was sick for two days so he stayed home from school.  Thursday I held baby Cora all after noon she was fussy most of the day and didn’t want to sleep.  I didn’t get much done.  I did enjoy holding her.  She is the sweetest baby girl.  I was beat when Bridger got home from work about 7:39 pm.  I left him to care for the kids for the night.  Wednesday morning he said he had a rough night up and down with her and then couldn’t go back to sleep.  Little Winn still wasn’t feeling well so kept him home for the day again.  I took them both over to our place for half the day.  Winn watched movies on our big TV in the basement.  I worked on my family tree wall.   Baby Cora took a good nap for me.  My family tree wall is turning out fun. I’m hanging all our old family photos we took when our girls were growing up.  Fun to see the old photos.  They have been in storage for years.  I have a big wall in basement to hang them all.  I ordered a family tree vinyl which has added a lot to the display.  I saw various ones displayed on Pintrest which gave me the inspiration to make one myself.   I have taken the old pictures frames various sizes and colors and painted them gold to unify the look.  It is coming along nicely.  It has been an on going project for me.  Fun to work on it for a few hours.  Wednesday was a better day and I wasn’t as tired from watching the kids.  I took baby Cora home with me for the night so Bridger could get some sleep. Tasha called that evening to let me know she was coming home  Thursday night the market was cancelled due to the corona-virus outbreak.   Everything is being shut down across the county.  That is a lot of work for her setting things up and then having to tear it all down- they lost money in this trip like many other companies.  I had a good night with baby Cora she woke up at three am after her 11:30 pm feeding.  Thursday I worked hard doing laundry,  I washed 6 loads and folded. it all.  I know Tasha will appreciate having her laundry done for the week.  I had the house all tidy by the time Bridge got home from work late at 8:45pm.  Tasha was flying in about 9:30pm.  I was beat from my hard day of work.   The kids were good for me.  I love those four little grandkids so very much.   Winn was feeling better and went to school on Thursday.  With the coronavirus alert she had food delivered from Costco and Amanda- Bridger’s assistant went and bought can goods for them to stock up on some food.  This pandemic virus is scary. 

  

Our Baby Cora Rose

Grandpa Symes’s holding baby Cora 

The Cornavirus

Each day this week has been a new announcement of things shutting down and asking us to stay home. It is spreading fast through out the world.  Italy is completely shut down.  They are having 100’s of people dying daily.  Wednesday night the entire NBA basketball season was shut down due to Rudy Golbert our own Utah Jazz player has the virus.   

News today -SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Health announced Saturday that a new case of COVID-19 in Summit County marks the first instance of community spread of the disease in Utah.

Community spread means the source of the infection is unknown; previous diagnosed cases of the novel coronavirus in Utah were from residents who had recently traveled to impacted areas.

The patient is a male Summit County resident between age 18 and 60, the Health Department announced in a news release. He had "no history of travel and no known contact with any person who has been confirmed to have COVID-19," the release says. The virus first started in China-  they have been hit hard.  Our president closed the United States boarder to any one coming from China the end of January.   As it has spread in Europe countries have added country ban travel.  There are several cruise ships were people have contracted the illness.  It has seemed t  in be that serous here in the US-  but fearing it is more serious than we as a people realize this week when all large activities are closing down.  The church announced Thursday all LDS church meeting will know longer take place thru out the world.  That means no sacrament meeting on Sunday or Sunday school.  I was suppose to teach this week.  I also have to cancel our new self reliance -personal finance course I was teaching on Sunday evenings.  Friday  morning announced all temple closed and all senior missionaries are returning home from infected areas around the world.  They also just announced all Utah schools were closed by the end of the day.  It has been declared a national emergency.   We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg so to speak of the spread of this illness.  It is just beginning in our country.  This is a first in my lifetime to see such a wide variety of community closure.   The illness is the worst for the elderly, they will be the one to die from it the most as predicted.  The country is trying to slow down the outbreak by asking us to stay home and not gather in large gathering anything over 20 People.  I don’t know if we ca even gather as a family for Baby Cora's blessing this next Sunday.  Thing are changing fast daily.   There has been a run on all the grocery stores for supplies.  At Costco Thursday morning people were lined up double file all round the very large building waiting for it to open.  Trisha said the Walmart shelves out by her were empty.  It is nation wide.  It is a very unsettling feeling waiting for the worst to hit.  The virus is spreading and popping up everywhere it seems and not knowing how they contracted the virus.   After listening to the news last night it is frightening how fast this can spread and we as a county are not ready for the the big wave of illness that is going to happen.  They are trying to get us prepared as best as we can.  Post from Natasha - The Spring Silos is canceled. I am still in shock!! We were so excited and so prepared. All the time and money getting ready for this event just to pack back up and head home the next day!! It’s a situation we couldn’t have predicted. But I am so happy to be home safe with my family.  And because the fair couldn’t happen due to safety precautions. We are doing a weekend sale over at @ivycityco. Head over there to check Your support means the world to me! 🍋

Beautiful Day

Monday morning it is a beautiful sunny day.  Day light saving time is here so the days are going to be getting lighter  and longer which feels so nice.  The lake is a mirror reflection so beautiful with the sun rising and reflecting in the lake as a mirror of the sky above- a breath taking sight to behold this morning.  So exciting to get the text from Sharlena this morning of Coles anticipated mission call this month.  Our Sabbath day yesterday was a busy day for me.  I spoke in sacrament.  

I so enjoyed my meetings.  Dolly picked me up for church and dropped me off-  we gathered up snow clothes and our snowshoes that’s we never got out this winter or last winter - for her to use when her niece and nephew come in town this week.  I then had to prepare for a new session of self reliance group at the church 6pm.  We had a great turn out.  I had 13 in my class and another group of 16.  It is a 12 week course so I will be busy on Sunday evening’s facilitating my group.  Speaking in sacrament has given me time to reflect about my testimony and my growth in the gospel the past 52 years.  I loved reading the history book complied about my beloved Denton. Texas.  “When the Saints Come Marching In.”  As I reflected about the examples set for me in the early days of my church membership it had a huge impact in giving me a foundation to grow in the gospel-  I love the memories of the loving. Dedicated saints and the impact they branded on my heart forever.  They never knew the impact that has greatly blessed my life.  I’m so grateful for their example to model in my life-  it has given me the motivation to be better and strive the keep the fire burning in my heart of the message of the restored gospel.  I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I need to be more bold in sharing the message of the gospel.  Today I have got to get some cleaning done here at our lake home and then head back to Draper for the week.  I’m baby sitting for Tasha again- she is going to Waco, Texas for the Magnolia market with her business they invited her to come again.  Tasha has been very busy on a cruise for a week and then she went to Vegas this past weekend for a birthday celebration of her girlfriend.  She has a great group of girlfriends.  She is home today and off to Texas.  I’m excited to babysit baby Cora. This is going to be a busy day.  

Cole Awaiting his Mission Call

Our Cole is finishing up his mission papers this week and we will know by the end of the month where he will be called to serve.  This will be our first missionary to serve in our family branch. We are so excited for him.  He is a very special young man.  Love his smiling face and short haircut, he is so handsome! 

Disciple

Discipline is the root word of a disciple-  discipline ourselves to live the gospel.   Doing it out of love for our Savior -   He was our example of true love - living the gospel out of love.  This was a thought that really stood out to me in our relief society lesson today.  I did not know this-       I’m striving to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and as I work toward my eternal home- I have to be discipline in my daily actions to choose “what would Jesus do?”

March is Here

So glad it is March that means it is getting closer to spring.  Winter has been long this year getting tired of the cold weather.  We had a fun week this past week.  I kept busy here at the cabin sorting things to take down to our new place and leaning out closets here at the lake.  We are slowly getting things moved into our Draper home.   I packed up clothes that we could move down.  Most of it is clothes we have worn for special events in our lives.  We both have gained weight and can’t fit in them but being hopeful that we will lose some weight.  I just can’t seem to part with my formals from the girls wedding receptions and some of my favorite dresses I wore when I was 135lbs which I may never see again.  I’m up 30lbs.   It is the sentimental memories I cherish in hanging on to some of our things.  It nice to have our own place in then Salt lake valley again.  The weather was very nice for three days in the high 50’s. The snow is all melted it felt like a touch of spring in the air.  Craig has young men’s- Tuesday night. We got up early Tuesday morning and drove to Montpellier to play pickleball.  We had fun getting some exercise- we played for three hours.  I was beat and had to take some IB when we got home.  I enjoyed studying the book of Isaiah for several hours along with my come follow me study material.   Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day with new fallen snow.  So we took off for the afternoon and went snowmobiling for a couple of hours -we sled for about 40 miles.  My back and knees were tired when we got back.  It was about as far as I could handle.  We had great groomed trails and the new fallen snow it was very pretty.   That evening we had our game night and dinner with our friends -the Caldwells and Hislop’s.  The Caldwells were in town from Palm Springs so they hosted.  Lynhardt’s couldn’t come- we missed them. Tammy had Shingles, poor thing sorry for her.  Hope she recovers quickly.  We had a fun evening out, from there we headed to our Draper home.  The weather was great the few days in town.  We got up Thursday morning and went to the sport's mall  and played pickleball three hours again.  I was beat -afterwards  we had just enough time to empty the car out from our stuff and head out to take Landon to dinner for his 12th birthday-  hard to believe he is 12 yrs old now.  We test drive a Lexus that Craig found in the classified ads, it was not taken care of as well as we thought it should  be for a 2016.  We would have to sell the Acadia to buy it.  I felt it was not as nice as our Acadia and would rather of kept it for now.  We need to hold off on buying another car for now.  It was nice to have our old Lexus for driving back and forth but Craig wanted to sell it because it had 185,000 miles on it.  We had a nice time visiting with the Chaudhry family.  Little Ashtyn is such a darling little girl her red hair is so beautiful.  She has so much hair down to her waste at three years old.  Landon has never had a Big Mc hamburger meal so we took him to get one.  That was his choice for his birthday dinner.   We had a full day by the time we arrived home.  Friday morning  Craig got a hair cut and then went biking with Peter for the afternoon.  I stayed home decorating and putting things away.  I bought some decor things last week needed to hang the mirrors and picture I bought and put flowers in the vases for the fireplace, figuring out  how to display.  I also brought all my Easter decor down. So I spent the morning going through it all and putting out my Easter decor.  I love the Holidays and fun to decorate for the various holidays.  I had to take down my Valentine decor around the front door I had left up since Christmas and then converted to Valentine.  It kept me busy all day long.  I woke up sneezing and kept sneezing all day, I was feeling under the weather again with a darn cold.  I just can’t seem to get on top of it- my health the past 4 weeks it has been up and down for me.  I’m feeling better for few days and then a relapse.  It felt good to just stay home for the day.  Bridger called and invited Craig to go to the Jazz game this evening which would be lots of fun for him spending time with Lincoln and Winston too.  I just rested and watched Tv for the evening.  Saturday finished cleaning things up and we headed back to the lake by noon-  Craig wanted to get back up in time to watch the BYU basketball game.  Back to the Lake.  It was nice to have a few days in the valley with warmer weather.