2020 Year in Review

2020 Year in Review

The best thing we’ve enjoyed this year is watching baby Rayden grow.  He is such a sweet, social little guy.  He is fun to play with, and he always looks like he is anticipating a fun time.

I both loved and hated the Covid shut-down this Spring.  As a paraprofessional, it was terrible to have our classroom suddenly forced online with no time to prepare or learn all of the new programs and technology and different way of doing things.  It was so hard on our students, and we felt so bad for them.  However, as a mom, I loved having more time to spend with my kids, and as a mom who had home-schooled before, I didn’t stress much about their school work.  Aysha had the most critical classes – three honors classes, required for graduation!  But Aysha is also my most self-motivated student.  She kept track of her schedule, attended all of her online class meets, and kept up with all of her work.  She rather enjoyed schooling at home and not having the social stress of high school.  I did feel anxious and stressed about the world – people’s businesses being shut down and not being able to meet and connect.  Communication and connection are so vital to mental and emotional health!  I was shocked that everything was shut down without any consideration of the billions of unintended consequences.  But as an introvert and homebody, I loved having an excuse to just stay home and not go anywhere.  It was wonderful to have so much emotional space.  It was a much-needed rest from our hectic pace in 2019.

Elder Joel Entrikin struggled through the shut-down on his mission in Florida.  All of his friends and buddies were sent home or transferred away, one by one.  He received a companion brand new to the mission, and they were quarantined together for many, many weeks.  It was a very difficult time.  Once things started opening up and Elder Joel received more roommates, things started looking up.  He was very encouraged and happy again when the elders were allowed to start going out and about together again on P-days.

Emerald graduated from Pocatello Community Charter School in a drive-through ceremony in May.  She was disappointed to not have an opportunity to gather with her friends and classmates for a final good-bye.

Alexander’s teacher gave him and his classmates a good-bye gift of sunflower seeds, which Alexander planted in our front flower bed.  I’ve always wanted sunflowers in the front!  It was fun to watch them grow and frustrating to try to keep the earwigs from eating them down to nubs.  Alexander watered them every day, and in the fall he harvested the seeds.  He hopes to give some to friends and also plant some next year.

This summer I started my dream job of working at Lower Stanley Country Store Cabins and Motel up in the mountains.  I usually drove up, worked for a couple of days, and drove back home to take care of the kids.  Alexander had his first summer job of hosting his friend, McKay, at our house twice a week.  It usually went pretty well, but I liked to be on hand for the times that they had conflict or other situations that needed a little adult help to resolve.

Scott tore out our bathroom where the pipes had been leaking for quite some time and had ruined the wall and floor.  Over the summer Scott replaced all of the pipes, the floor, the shower stall, repainted, and also put in a new toilet.  We have a whole new bathroom!  It looks wonderful!

We went to Salmon to visit my parents for the 4^th of July – they even had a parade and fireworks!  It was wonderful to gather with other people and celebrate without Covid restrictions.  Coral flew in to Pocatello to join us for the holiday.  Jessalyn and Skyler brought her to Salmon, and we all stayed in the Airbnb in town.  We had such a nice time together!  Samantha Staub joined us as well.  She spent a month working in Stanley with Aysha, and Scott and I picked them up and brought them to Salmon to spend a couple of days with us.

On the next weekend, Melody drove up to Idaho with her and Judd’s kids.  We spent a fun day with them at their hotel in West Yellowstone on July 10, then they drove to Pocatello and spent a few days at Scott’s parents’ house before heading back home to North Carolina and Texas, respectively.

In July, Isaac cut his hair and submitted his mission papers!  We waited excitedly to receive his call.  Which didn’t come until November….

On July 27, Jessalyn and Skyler moved from their basement apartment near the Holt Arena to a little house near the Institute building on Carter Street.  The little house has three bedrooms and a nice living room with lots of room for Rayden to play.  Jessalyn began her senior year at ISU!

I completed my Pathway Connect program and was accepted to BYU Pathway Worldwide, working toward my bachelor’s degree.  I am so excited that my associate’s degree was still accepted, so I will not have to retake any general studies classes.  I should receive a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Professional Studies and certificates in Basic Accounting, Business and Leadership Skills, and Human Resource Management in four years of part-time schooling.  I decided to continue working as a paraprofessional in the SpEd Math classroom with Emily until I finish my bachelor’s degree.  It means a lot to be able to work the same days as my kids are in school and have summers off to work in Stanley.

In August, we asked the kids if there was anything they really wanted to do before summer was over, and Emerald said she really wanted to go to the City of Rocks and show us all of the places she had hiked with her classmates at a school campout a year or two before.  We had a wonderful family day trip to the City of Rocks on August 7. 

We took our traditional end-of-summer trip to Bear Lake on August 11.  Jessalyn, Skyler, and Rayden joined us, and it was so fun to see Rayden enjoying the sand and water! 

Alexander turned 8 and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We had a family baptism on August 15 conducted by Scott, and a little gathering afterward.

The start of school was a lot of local tension and contention about how to start school with Covid fears and Covid restrictions.  We ended up starting high school, Emerald’s first year at PHS and Aysha’s last, under a hybrid system – half the school attending on Mondays and Thursdays, and half the school attending on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Aysha was mostly upset that all of the people she hung out with last year are in the second half of the alphabet, attending on Tuesdays and Fridays, including her closest friend, Autumn.  Emerald didn’t mind too much, but she struggled with learning how to keep up with five high school classes when most of the work was online.  Her first trimester was rough, but her second trimester is going quite a bit better.

Dallin and Alexander started school every day with all of their classmates, but when Covid cases rose in Pocatello, PCCS went to a hybrid system also. They both miss being able to see all of their friends every day at school.  And they get tired of spending so much time at home together.  It has been a stressful year for them both.  However, they both have really great teachers.  That is a big blessing for Dallin.  He is starting to regain some of the confidence he lost with a teacher he didn’t work well with a couple of years ago.

Emerald and Dallin joined the youth bowling league with Emerald’s friend, LeAnne, since it is about the only group activity that hasn’t been cancelled.  Emerald tried participating in the high school Cross Country Team in the summer, but she discovered that she much prefers walking to running, so she stopped.  She also tried Speech and Debate for a trimester, but she is hoping to do drama instead this trimester.  She wants something with more scope for creativity.  She loves her English class, her choir class, and her art class.  She has created some amazing paintings in art!

Alexander used the money from his summer job of hosting McKay to take a parkour class through the fall.  He learned some pretty cool skills!  Alexander also played on a Campfire Soccer team this fall.  He had some really impressive players on his team – they won every game!

Alexander harvested the seeds from his sunflowers and plans to plant them again next year!  It was a very successful experiment!

At the end of October, Melody invited Scott to fly to her home in Texas for a week to do a Haunted House for her coworkers.  He had a fun time reuniting with Melody, Judd, and David, and he was also glad to go home.

Isaac finally got his mission call!!  It was a whirlwind of an experience, especially when he discovered that he had missed the announcement, and it was almost time for him to start!  He was called to be a service missionary here in Pocatello.  It is a learning curve for all of his to have a missionary in our home!  We are learning how to support Elder Entrikin the Elder and create a mission home.  He was especially excited to receive his missionary name tags a week after he started.  Then he felt like a real missionary and a real adult!

Scott received his SUDA certification and is now an officially licensed substance abuse counselor!  He is still working his full-time job at MK Place as staff supervisor, which is salaried and has benefits.  In addition, he does two or three groups a week at Pacific Rim as a counselor, and has two or three individual clients per week.  He is so good at what he does!  Their attendance at groups has gone up astronomically since Scott started working there!  He is very motivational.

It has been wonderful to be so close to Skyler, Jessalyn, and Rayden this year.  Rayden is such a ray of sunshine, just like his name!  I am so glad that we can support Jessalyn in her final year of school.  Aysha babysits for them 2 or 3 times a week, and they have Isaac and Aysha over for a game night almost every Friday night.  It is such a blessing!

We are looking forward to 2021 – to going back to school with all of our friends every day, to our temples opening again, especially our own Pocatello Temple, which is supposed to be finished this year!  Aysha will graduate early in February and work in Stanley again.  She plans to attend Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, in the fall.  Our Elder Joel, Elder Entrikin the Younger, will return home in November.  We can’t wait to see him again! So much to look forward to!