At the beginning of this week, the Coronavirus affected our family only remotely. We had maybe two cases in all of Utah. The only way it affected us personally was that people were over-buying toilet paper and it was hard to find in the stores. I mostly just found that humorous.

On Wednesday, the MTC announced that it would close and I knew it was the end of the world.

I don't really think it's the end of the world, but my feelings drastically plummeted from humor to dread. On Thursday, Dixie State, where Mariah goes to college announced that all classes would go on-line and no one was to show up for classes for the rest of the semester. Later that afternoon, BYU, where Savannah and Megan go to college, announced the same and encouraged all out-of-state students to return home. That same day, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where we all worship, cancelled all Sunday worship services WORLDWIDE--indefinitely. I thought maybe public school would provide a small bit of normalcy for my four youngest but Friday afternoon, the Governor ordered a "soft-closure" of all public schools for two weeks. This in a state where we hardly ever even have a snow day. The schools don't ever close.

It may not be the end of the world, but it is the end of the world as we know it--at least for a little while. And it happened so suddenly!

So, BEFORE our world ended...

Megan went to Disneyland with Ammon. Ammon has a rich uncle who is getting married and he paid for his guests to fly out and stay in the hotel. Megan and Ammon decided to hit Disneyland while they were there and before the wedding festivities began. They spent all day Friday there and had a blast. Disneyland closed to the public on Saturday! They will fly home late tonight.

Savannah was at work when the IT department got the news that all classes would need Zoom computer capabilities by the following Tuesday. They also told any employee who was feeling the slight bit sick to NOT come to work. Since Savannah already was feeling sick, she snuck out the back door so they wouldn't be mad at her for coming to work in the first place! Zoom wasn't part of her department's responsibilities anyway.

Cali and Chey started spring tennis league and had practices and ladder play on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. (They are going to continue play since their group activities are under 100 participants and it is a non-contact sport. Have I mentioned that I love tennis?) They also went to track practices and had an inter-squad meet. (But track has now been cancelled at least for the next two weeks). They also had festival for piano, which since it is conducted in small groups in front of judges, was still allowed to go on. They both played fantastic! Kevin and I are so proud of the skills they've gained on piano and all their hard work.

Beth and Ben had karate and Beth had play practice (which they say they will still perform, but will they?). Beth is pretty laid-back about school closure. She thinks it will be fun to be at home with her sisters. Ben has taken more of the-world-is-about-to-end-we're-all-going-to-die! approach. That is when he's not tearing the middle out of the entire loaf of bread I just made in complete disregard to the needs of the rest of the family, or covering his sneeze with the family's kitchen towel--you know, the one we use to dry dishes? Don't worry, we're teaching as we go along. He's just a typical 9 year-old is all and we love him!

Cali and Chey and their friends reacted to the news of school closure by inviting all their girl friends over on Friday night and all their girl and guy friends over on Saturday night. Apparently, their social needs will continue to be met and also apparently it will be at our house. Don't worry. We will keep them away from the kitchen towels.

I spent most of Saturday driving down to St. George to get Mariah and drive her back to us! She wants to return to campus, but this week is their spring break and since all other plans got cancelled, she'd rather be with us. We'd rather her be with us, too! We will see how long we can convince her to stay and do her online classes from Springville. We love that girl! Her entire track season has been cancelled. In one way, she is relieved since she has been running SO MUCH (60 mile weeks) and she is exhausted. On the other hand, she has been running SO MUCH (60 mile weeks!) and she won't have a chance to see her work pay off in the races that all got cancelled.

It's crazy what a difference in our goals and priorities one week can make.