November 2019 through Coronavirus 2020

Hello 2020, you weirdo. The world as we know it has changed. How it will look going forward is anyone's guess. I try to put into context all of the millions of people who have been affected by this pandemic, those who have died, the jobs lost that will never return, our individual identities and unique passions whether they be theater or dance or education or sports or building a business - all of  them temporarily eliminated. Even church - my gosh we have missed church for the last 6 weeks and I'm pretty sure we will miss church for 6 more weeks or more. We will get through this and carry on but I think it will take the rest of our collective lifetimes to try to put this into context. IT'S CRAZY. Also - the angel Moroni fell off the Salt Lake Temple during an earthquake. Need I say more?

We have been keeping calm and carrying on pretty much as usual here at 981 Chapel Ridge Drive. We don't have kids at home or have to make a living, and I am so impressed with how each of you kids are handling your lives during this. You are all rock stars.

We have been connected to each of you which has been a tremendous blessing.
Angie organized an Easter Sunday Zoom meeting and I will always treasure the experience. We heard beautiful music from Whitney and Caroline and then from Jonas and Elise and heard beautiful talks by Vivian and Dave. I will never ever forget it.

Each family has helped us feel connected and loved. One week the Huish family stopped by to visit. Dave donned a mask and gloves to help me set up Zoom on my computer. He is grateful the rest of the world has come around to his hand washing habit.

Macy and Carly tried out the hammock for 2020!

We drove up to Logan to help celebrate Amy's 38th birthday. I love this picture - it's a perfect moment in time.

We forgot to socially distance when we jumped up to do this.

 And we got to play pickleball which Amy got for her birthday. It's fun for all ages, just like advertised.

The Hallstroms have dropped by and we've visited with them in the back yard and walked to the ponds. It was fun to see Elise who was home from BYU-I on a short break. And it's great to have Joe Joe Bunny home for the summer, even though like all of the college kids, he would much rather be finishing up his freshman year at school with his friends and professors.

We have also enjoyed visiting them at their home at 80 H. It's amazing to see each of the newest home renovations. I could live in their tranquil master bedroom. I had a brainstorm that I wanted Elise to play her guitar and accompany Angie and Jonas and I while we sang a parody of "Do Re Mi" turned into a song about coronavirus. It was a scream. If I could upload videos on this blog I'd do it, but I can't figure out how. And we just met them at Liberty Park and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon.

And from across the miles Andrea and Andrew and the kids have called and texted. They even sent us cute Easter cards (one for grandma Hiatt too).

We've also been serenaded by beautiful duets from Caroline and Whitney every week. They are superb!

Tony and Cindy and the whole gang dropped by to visit a few weeks ago too. They pulled into the driveway and Cindy rang a cowbell and we came outside and visited them while they stayed in the van. I was thinking how hard this must be on little kids like Truman where all of a sudden grandma doesn't scoop him up and hug him. Then I told Cindy I think it's ME that it's the hardest on!

I've tried teaching "virtual piano" to Vivian and Calvin for a couple of weeks and they were troupers. But picture it - they would put their camera really close to their music and I'd take a picture of the picture on their camera and then look at it on my phone. Then I'd try to follow along with them looking at the photo of the music on my phone while they played. It actually is somewhat doable (but lacking).

The last few weeks we've driven down to Springville and had "Porch Piano. " I sit on the porch and listen to them play from the piano room inside. Well, at least I did it the first week. Then the next week I crept inside, and of course kept inching closer and closer to the piano so I could see the notes. Oops. The first two weeks we went down for Porch Piano it RAINED, but everyone hung out with us on the porch. It's super cozy! This week the weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed the Gazebo and their beautiful back yard.

 Jane's awesome self-portrait for her art class.

I recently read about the way people have reacted to this pandemic. The article said first we hoarded toilet paper; then we did jigsaw puzzles; then we started baking; then we tried to take up a new hobby. I have followed that trajectory to a "T"! I've made three home made pies and home made bread, which isn't like me. We even had home made bread for the sacrament one week.

I've been making facemasks through the church humanitarian center JustServe. I made 100 so far and am going to make 50 more next week. I listen to The Great British Baking Show in the background.

Okay, moving on now. The rest of this blog is all over the place! This is the oldest photo I had saved on my phone and I love having it to put on this meandering post. We all remember that Grandpa Hiatt spent a lot of productive decades on his computer. His mind was curious, agile and engaged until the very end of his life.  It's sweet that the clock behind him in this photo has the date and time on it.

I've been spending some of this pandemic time pulling photos from the 1,125 that I have on my phone ever since Angie RE-reminded me that even though I can no longer download directly from my phone to my computer, I can access my photos on the icloud. So, these are a few that I've downloaded.

Here we are in December, 2019 (except Lauren who was on her honeymoon) at Chuck-A-Rama for a family dinner in December. Andrew and Andrea brought their whole family to Utah for Lauren's wedding which meant we were all together at brief intervals and I will always treasure those brief intervals! We had a mini family reunion for ONE DAY between when Amy and Dave got here from Park City and before Jonas and Ethan flew to Minnesota as their Christmas present.

Look at this group of young adults! Oh my gosh they're gorgeous.

And look at these Grown-ups! I love each one of you so much. I love Forrest too, but dangit he wasn't in this photo for some reason.

Truman fell asleep and woke up right before it was time to leave. But he got his own boothe!

Our bumper crop of the cutest little girls. Look at the potential in those beautiful eyes. I swoon.

And oh my gosh look at this eclectic ensemble of teenagers and Calvin who thinks he's a teenager. They're each so awesome. I love seeing what each of them chose to eat too!

One afternoon while we were all together, in honor of Wyatt's birthday on January 21st, we assembled cleaning kits for refugees. Angie and Forrest and Dennis and I dropped them off a few weeks later at the refugee office and they were grateful.

It's sweet to see and feel Wyatt watching over me whenever I'm at the computer. I think about him every day and often wonder what he's doing. His smile gives me quiet comfort and confidence.

We also put together some little gift bags with stuffed animals, candy, games, etc. Our family is blessed to have this crop of little girls who are at that magical age when they love to create things and do things that bring joy to everyone! They wrote these notes of encouragement and put one in each gift bag.When we dropped them off, the lady told us that she had a group of about 12 kids who come by after school to talk with her, and she would share the bags with them. I think she was more excited about those than the cleaning kits!

I've kept a basket with a collection of stuffed animals in my closet for decades. We decided to send them to their next home and included one in each gift bag.

This picture is a keeper! The sweaters were not exactly what I had hoped for, but having this photo is worth it. I love the lighting too.

And now on to some photos of Lauren's wedding.

Lauren and Zac's wedding in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple was made even more special because it was "her" temple growing up and now it's "hers and Zac's" as they are embark on the rest of eternity.

Lauren had an unflinching devotion to Justin Beiber throughout her childhood. I was so impressed with her ability to not even blink at our teasing, when everyone, including grandma and grandpa, teased her about it. So, in honor of her childhood devotion, her fam serenaded her with a hilarious version of Justin's song "One Less Lonely Girl." Hilarious. The line that has stayed with me had something to do with hair extensions and them singing "You're wearing them now."

 

We feasted on an Olive Garden catered luncheon. Amy said Macy is now planning HER wedding breakfast.

I hurried everyone on stage for a quick photo snap since who knows when all 27 of us will be together again!

Then it was off to a fairy tale reception in Provo. I enjoyed every second of it, because all I had to do was enjoy myself.

The bride and groom were movie star gorgeous.



And they had music and dancing! These photos are so fun to look back on!

and oh my heck, then Lauren went to town!

These next photos are a collection of the rest of the holiday. I love this of the girls fawning over Brandon who they hadn't seen since they dropped him off at Dixie State in the summer.

This was from Thanksgiving dinner.

And these are Christmas Eve dinner. So wonderful to have the Huish and the Hallstrom families right here in Utah to join with us!

and holy moley we rocked it with the bells this year! It was gorgous!

One of the things that just blows my mind is that Ethan and Jonas have both embraced playing the piano and they're really good! They're teaching themselves using online stuff, and both have musical abilities.

It was special to have Andrew and Andrea and B, W and C with us for Christmas Eve, along with the Hallstroms who are now in residence here in Utah, and the Springville Sweats who have been our mainstays.

The teenagers were such good sports too.

Beautiful angel choir and handsome kings and heavenly manger scene.

Jane was once again a sheep. She's been one her whole life.

2018

2015

Reagan brought her guitar and we sang beautiful Christmas songs together.

We also got to have Caroline and Whitney with us while Andrew and Andrea went to St. George and picked up Brandon.

We joined Denny and Emma and some of Emma's friends and performed for the residents at Grandma Hiatt's care center, Ashford.

Denny and I played a duet. We kinda look alike in this picture (it's called "piano face").

I'm so glad we were forced to let my mom's hair go naturally white. It's so pretty.

And another photo which was taken of Ryan Norman, David Hancock and Tony at Gary Norman's funeral.

Another throwback of the three cuties.

I also got to be Tony's "date" when he spoke to the supervisors of the hosting center missionaries. I saw lots of my old church service missionary friends and Tony gave such a great presentation on the First Vision.

Amy and Jack on Jack's 14th birthday!Such a great kid. Next year I bet he's as tall as Amy! Amy told me that preparing for his birthday gave her PTSD because a year ago at this time they had just moved to Logan. I remember it well too! We drove all over creation trying to find him an ice cream cake!

Angie and Forrest and me and Dennis and my first cousin George Bean and his wife Kathy after Angie had presented at RootsTech as part of the Saints team. It was fascinating. She is SUCH a good presenter! George is my Aunt Barbara's youngest child (of 7) and the cousin I was closest to growing up, which isn't saying much since we were so isolated in la Grande. He lived near Portland.

Eli passed off his 100 hymns! At one point he did play all 100 of them with only one mistake. I'm so proud of him! He's the most laid back, gentle kid and lets me keep teaching him piano without making nary a peep.

Macy and Carly with the stuffed animals I helped them make! They have such vivid imaginations I think they could entertain themselves for the next three years.

Little Reggie opening her mission call to the Brazil Interlagos (sp) mission! she has been so solid going forward into the uncertainty of missionary service during coronavirus. One thing's for certain, I know she will serve with all her heart wherever she ends up.

Me squishing Reggie to death when we could squish people to death. It's so fun to hug someone that tiny and squishable!

Dang, this is blurry but I'm keeping it here. We got to babysit Truman for a few days and there's nothing more fun than giving a three-year-old some water and a cup and pitcher.

 Vivian playing basketball. She has a competitive streak in her! She's so much fun to watch grow up!

Macy red-faced with exertion after a basketball game. That girl is Michael Jordan. She is driven.

And my adorable North Carolina girls during Christmas holidays. What fun it was to have the North Carolina Sweats here with us! Probably won't happen many times. It makes me miss them like crazy though!

I started this post off with a photo of my dad and will end with this one of my mom. She is quarantined at Ashford during this Coronvirus mayhem. I have such trust in Ashford that's it made it bearable. If she were still at Sagewood, where I trusted half of them and didn't trust half of them, I would be worrying about her more. Here's my mom holding her surrogate baby that was crafted by someone who donated three of them to Ashford Memory Care. They cost $700 each and I'm not surprised. They are works of art. When I hold them I feel like it's a real baby and obviously grandma Hiatt has that same feeling. Denny said she thought my mom called this doll "Carmel" so that's what Denny and I call her. Our little sister "Carmel Hiatt."

As you can see, my mom is gently shielding Carmel's face from the sun. My reflection is in the glass, where I go and sit outside the dining room at Ashford every week and wave furiously at my mom. Although when I went today they couldn't get her to look up at me so I waved furiously, but futilely.

Well, that's all for now. At least I got these posted. Some day I'll actually finish my blog about our trip to Rome! XOXOXO Mom