June 2020 - Week 1

MONDAY: Since I took Friday off work to go help Josh and his parents move Grandma Parsons to Salmon, Josh came with me to Mud Lake on Monday to get the rest of my belongings and furniture out of my 2nd grade classroom and into my new classroom in another hallway. He worked at the golf course early that morning, then drove to Mud Lake with me, so he was pretty tired, but he was a good sport. Afterwards, we drove to Idaho Falls to do some grocery shopping and we had dinner at the Bee's Knee's with my "Lunch Ladies" teacher's group from school. It was nice to eat inside a restaurant with a group of people again! I drove us home to Salmon, and Josh slept for about half the drive. I was grateful he came with me!

TUESDAY: I tackled the 3 giant boxes of food storage that we brought home with us from moving Grandma. It took me about 4 hours to empty the boxes, make room for the items in our cupboards by cleaning out and rearranging them, and organize everything in their new space. I threw away a big garbage bag full of stuff, donated another bag to charity, and the kitchen feels much more efficient now! I always like the feel of a newly organized space! It was my first "real" day of summer, and I never even left the house--I didn't even shower until late in the afternoon! It felt good to just do what I wanted and not have a set schedule. 

WEDNESDAY: Josh put the new bumper on the Jeep, it looks so good and is MUCH more functional.

I visited Josh at his work at the golf course after I did some errands in town. He showed me a project he started on this spring: making a new teebox for #9. It's higher on the hillside, and has such a great view! I loved seeing his beautiful work on display on the golf course below us.

We helped Grandma rearrange furniture n her new house and moved items inside from her shed for about an hour in the afternoon after Josh got home from work. Then he took me on a Jeep ride to 10 Mile--neither of us had been up there before. It was a beautiful drive, with fantastic views, and we went as far as we could until downed trees blocked our way. From there, Josh hiked on foot to the end of the road and back, and then we drove our way back down the mountainside and returned home.

THURSDAY: As quoted from my journal: "There's a lot of unrest in our country right now. There's riots going on in a lot of major cities and a "Black Lives Matter" movement in response to a black man named George Floyd being killed by a white police officer who put him in a chokehold with his knee and disregarded George's pleas that he couldn't breathe. It was all captured on bystander's phones. I have a heavy feeling of sadness from all of this--I am not racist, and am saddened to hear stories of people who are, and the oppression that Black people in America still feel. I'm sad that so much violence and riots and unkindness are abound in our world in response to that." 

I have a lot of anxiety, and the amount of things that are out of my control has increased this year due to COVID19, and as a result, so has my anxiety. The negativity can overwhelm me at times, so that afternoon, I weeded the raspberries in the garden, and sat in the Triple S for several hours just watching the stream, thinking, reading, and writing. It's so peaceful in that corner of our property! When Josh came home from work, he mowed the new grass by the fire pit for the first time. It looked so nice!

FRIDAY: Josh and I looked at a toyhauler trailer in Baker mid-morning that was listed in yesterday's newspaper. It was listed at a very reasonable price: $9500 (which is the best price we've seen for a toyhauler in our size range, and we've been looking or over 9 months!). It's a 2007 and is 26' feet long. There is a lot of storage in it, a pull-down queen bed in back, and an oversized queen bed in front. One of our must-haves was a walk-around queen bed. This doesn't have that. However, we haven't seen anything less than $15K that has a walk-around bed in front; most are around $20K. I realized if a walk-around bed costs about $6000 more, then maybe I should consider this option. The bed is accessed by the hallway--so there's only about a 3-foot wide space to get into it. After looking over the rest of the trailer, I realized I could live with it. I think it will be a good transition trailer for a few years until the boys are gone, and by then the walk-around style will be around in more used trailers. There were 2 older couples looking at it when we got there, and they went inside and talked to the lady for a long time, so we figured it was sold. However, after they left, we went in, and it was still available. So we purchased it right then and hooked it up to the truck and hauled it away! It was very exciting and it happened so quickly, but I feel good about it! It's in good shape and was the right price and it will sleep all of us and hold our motorcycles and water toys, too.

Amanda and Ryan came to Salmon for the first time since February. I stopped by Hannah's house on Friday afternoon and visited with Hannah and Amanda on the back patio and we ate popsicles in the shade as we talked. Josh and I were originally planning on having a BBQ at our house on Sunday night since the Berube's were in town, but the weather forecast didn't look good, so we decided to change it to Friday night instead. Unfortunately, that meant that John couldn't come because he had to help with the outdoor high school graduation that night. It was a really low-key BBQ and just Ryan & Amanda and the Judy family came. Ryan was very cautious and wouldn't sit at the table to eat with us, and we all had masks and I brought out hand sanitizer by the food station, too. The meal was good and the company was awesome! We laughed so much! It's great that the 3 couples get along together so well! We had a fun night with our friends!

SATURDAY: Josh and I drove out to Sharkey Hot Springs on Saturday night. We hadn't been there for many months. Thankfully it was open--it had just recently opened after being closed since the end of March. The forest service and BLM closed public places due to out-of-town people flocking to outdoor sites when the pandemic broke out. The hot tub we ordered this spring was supposed to be delivered to our house the first week of June, but that also changed due to COVID19 due to being put on backorder, which was a bummer. I was grateful to be able to soak somewhere!