January 2021

January started off with a me giving my first violin concert.  Mom and Dad were a very kind, generous and forgiving audience.  I was so nervous and it sounded terrible, but they were just happy that I am playing the violin again.  

I also got all the Christmas decorations put away.  That is always a sad day, but it has to be done.  

January 2nd I spent the majority of the day deep cleaning the kitchen and wiping all the oil off of everything.  Chinese cooking is so much fun, but there is a lot of clean up afterwards.  We also cleaned the carpets in the living room.  Trying to start off with things clean.  We will see how long it lasts.  

January 3rd my friend Tiffany visited for a little bit.  She is the one that inspired me to start playing the violin again.  Since we cannot sing in church they have asked her to play the hymns on her violin.  I love listening to her each week.  

January 4th was the first day back as school after break.  It was a day for the teachers to get ready for digital classes to start up again.  I got to work on a Digital Citizenship class with Mrs. Rogowski and then I planned Mrs. Justice's classes.  Mrs. Justice retired right before Christmas and I filled in for a couple of weeks until the new teacher started.  It was fun.  Avian had their last home game for volleyball.  Steve and Nick got to go see the game.

New year - New name - New pronouns  Naomi now goes by Avian and they/them, which is perfect because they have always loved birds and their nickname is Pigeon.  

Avian's school pictures finally arrived.  

Thank goodness for masks because at least it will hide the "WHAT THE ????" look on my face.  I have never had a great poker face.  Avian and I would have bought this t-shirt for me, but we couldn't find my size.  

The very next day during Relief Society someone said something so monumentally and incredibly stupid that I made by "STUPID" face.  The presidency members were laughing so hard they had to turn off their cameras.  One of the ladies missed it so I sent her this picture.  I love the ladies in the presidency.  They are so much fun. 

Nuf said!!!!

January 6th we found out that our new dentist went to LNC.  Dr. Alex is really nice and think we are going to really like her.  We would like her even if she wasn't an LNC alum.  

January 6, 2021, is a day that will be in history books as the day the United States constitution almost fell.  A group of Trump followers, who believed that the election was stolen from President Trump, stormed the Capitol Building in an attempt to stop the electoral college voting process.  They were armed and broke windows to get inside.  They got into the Senate room where the voting had been taking place.  Luckily the place had been evacuated minutes before.  They were stupid enough to be taking selfies and putting those out on social media.  One gentleman (I use the term very loosely) broke into Speaker Pelosi's office and started going through her person papers and ransacking her office.  It was all on video.  One of the Capitol security was killed in the process of trying to defend the Capitol.  The press was urging President Trump to make a statement and stop the violence.  He finally came on with a speech telling them to got home "even though the election was stolen from us" which did nothing to calm them down.  Eventually the National Guard got there and shut the event down.  Several arrests were made in the following days and weeks for those who were the leaders of the insurrection. It was a dark day in our history.  

January 9th I was released as a seminary teacher.  I zoomed with President Beckworth and it was official.  The new teacher is Karli Bennett.  She will be amazing.  

January 12th I totally and spectacularly fell on my way into the post office.  I landed really hard on my right knee and hand.  My knee was immediately tender but I didn't notice it because when I fell my thumb popped back into place and didn't hurt for the first time in years!!!!  It was worth it. 

January 13th.  It is exactly 10 months after the start of the pandemic.  We are back on remote restrictions and Covid numbers are rising again because of all the parties around the holidays.  Steve had a great meeting with his new boss and I was called as the second counselor in the Relief Society presidency.  

January 15th Nick got his first ticket.  He rolled through a stop sign coming out of school and a cop was sitting right there waiting.  It wouldn't have been so bad except that Nick had been holding in a fart all morning and released it as soon as he got in the car.  When he rolled down his window for the cop, the cop kept sniffing in Nick's car and asked him to get out.  The cop searched him and called for backup.  Two other cop cars showed up.  Nick was frisked twice again to make sure he didn't have anything on him.  Nick was starting to freak out a little bit and then they called the canine unit to come search his car.  While the canine was searching they were asking him a series of questions.  "Do you have a weapon in the car?"  Nick hesitated because he didn't know if his Eagle Scout knife counted as a weapon.  He told them about the knife.  They then asked if Nick took any substances.  Again, Nick hesitated because he didn't know if workout supplements counted as substances.  The cop said, "Are you lying to me?  You are taking a long time to answer."  Nick kept his cool and replied, "No, I am just wondering if workout supplements and vitamins count as substances."  By this point the cops were getting a good picture of what a good kid Nick is - Eagle Scout, works out regularly, etc.  They gave him a ticket for failing to stop and left.  Nick told me this story and I felt bad for him because it was probably traumatic, but I had to laugh because the whole thing happened because of a fart. I asked the school resource officer if this is a common thing and he said that marijuana sometimes smells like a fart.  We ended up hiring a lawyer who went to court for us and got the ticket reduced to improper equipment so it won't be on Nick's record or affect our insurance.  The lawyer got a huge kick out of the whole story.  Needless to say, Nick does not roll through stop signs anymore.  

January 15th Steve also had a call with his new coworkers in the morning and then went to Lowes and shiplapped the breakroom.  It was a busy day.  

January 18th Nick was ordained an Elder by Steve.  Brother Kelly (YM leader), Brother Cobb (high council) and Bishop Arias were all there to help out.  It was a cool moment.  

January 19th Mrs. Cook arrived.  I helped her get acclimated for the first week and then she was off and running.  She is going to be amazing.  I had a great time working with her.  She was a music teacher before she switched to English.  The instrument she plays really well is ----  the violin.  I brought my violin in for her to play because something felt off.  She helped me find that the bridge was uneven and that made it hard to not hit two strings at the same time.  I found a violin shop up in Davidson and got everything fixed.  It is so much better now.  

January 20th President Biden and Vice President Harris were sworn in to office!!!!  Glorious day!!

January 21st Nick applied to Mazda of South Charlotte.  Jason, the gentleman that interviewed him, told Nick that corporate usually took a couple of days to get back with their decision so not to worry if Jason didn't call until early the next week.  Jason sent Nick to have his drug test done.  Nick had just finished with the drug test when Jason called and offered Nick the job.  Corporate had been so impressed with Nick's grades, attendance and letter of recommendation from UTI that they hired him on the spot.  That made Nick feel really good. 

I named my violin - JOSEPHINE AMADEUS CANNON.  I love her!

Corporate people from Lowes inspected Steve's wall in the break room the other day and raved about it.  It is nice to be appreciated.  

January 26th, Nick started at Mazda.  He really loved it!!  All his worries about juggling school and a job and personal time melted away.  This is going to be a good thing.  

Avian and I went to LNC to turn in her volleyball uniform.  Afterwards they wanted to walk around the Northlake Mall.  We had the place almost to ourselves which is really weird for this mall.  The pandemic has really affected businesses and the way people entertain themselves.  Everyone used to go to the mall and now...