Our Story: The Bell Family

Mark is getting ready for the new semester which will start next Tuesday. It had a delayed start due to COVID-19. He and Dr. Conover got familiar with their new classroom this week. They will have some students attend in person, but will also broadcast the class. They also had to figure out how to change VHS to digital files because the new classrooms don’t have VHS players.

Monday was Mark’s grandpa’s 90th birthday! We had a Zoom party. Everyone shared memories of him and he seemed happy to see family! We hope we can all get vaccines soon so we can visit him in person!

Tuesday was our 50th Monthiversary (we’ve been married for 50 months). We didn’t really do anything special but it’s fun to find little things to celebrate.

This week I got to attend a primary activity for girls on Zoom. It was so fun! The activity leaders planned a get to know you game and a scavenger hunt.

Saturday morning we went to IFA to get some food for Flynn. We love going there because they allow pets. Flynn always gets a lot of smiles and he loves sniffing the bunnies and the dog bones.

Mark continued to work on his research paper. He’s working hard to finish it before the new semester begins on the 19th.

BYU-Idaho’s winter semester began this week. I graded the first assignment from my classes and enjoyed learning a bit about my students!

Our adventure of the week happened when we were running errands in town and our Camry died! It had a hard time starting in the Staples parking lot and soon whenever we would stop and then accelerate, the car would just turn off. Luckily Mark was driving and was able to slowly get us home. It definitely got our adrenaline going! Mark is doing some research to see if he can find out what is wrong with it. We’re grateful we have two cars and very rarely need them both at the same time with current circumstances.

I did well with my reading goal this week and read two books. I read the sequel to the Princess Academy by Shannon Hale and Jimmy Moore’s autobiography. Jimmy Moore lives in my parents’ neighborhood and has a son my age, so it was fun to learn more about his life.

We’ve been applying lessons from our health coach and have been focusing on making low carb, high protein meals this week. Our favorite was pizza crust made from ground chicken.

This week a group of people stormed the capital building. This meme made us laugh.

Between writing his research paper, Mark found some time to study for his ham radio license exam. All local tests were cancelled because of COVID so he did his test online with a club in Maine. He passed with flying colors and was excited to receive his call sign the next day. His sign is: KJ7THG.

I worked for webaim two days this week. I also got my Winter semester BYUI classes all set up. I’m teaching two sections of Parent Education this time. I’m a little nervous to have twice as many students, but it will be good. Two students reached out to me this week which was fun. I’m looking forward to getting to know them all next week!

We didn’t stay up late on New Year’s Eve because I accidentally accepted vipkid bookings on the 1st, but we made up for it by staying up late Friday night! We watched movies and played a few games on New Year’s Eve. We got our favorite salsa from Sam’s club and had taco salad for dinner.

Mark was able to take off New Year’s Day so we played with my bow and Mark’s throwing hatchets. I’ve been lifting weights and practicing pulling the string on my bow every day and I can see a lot of improvement. I still need to fine-tune my aim but I’m having a lot of fun.

This week I also made soup broth for the first time-playing with my instant pot. Early in the week I made Turkey soup and later in the week I made ham bone soup. I can never get enough soup in the winter!

We’re looking forward to 2021. We’ve both made goals to improve our health and have enlisted the help of a friend in our ward who is a health coach. I have a goal to read 21 books this year. I read one book in the first two days of the year so I’m off to a good start!

Sundays have been extra busy lately. This week we had a primary singing time on Zoom after church. It was so fun to see the kids and sing some fun primary Christmas songs. In the afternoon Mark and I delivered a bunch of wooden angels my counselor’s husband made for the primary children. A few weeks ago we sent each child a story and invited them to find ways to be angels to those around them.

I helped initiate and host a Zoom party with my dad’s extended family that evening. I am grateful I grew up close to such loving and kind people. All of my aunts and uncles came and most of my cousins. We each gave a life update and then shared a favorite Christmas tradition. Many of the memories turned to my Grandma and Grandpa Murray. It was so wonderful to connect with everyone when we can’t meet in person. We even had two full time missionaries hop on to say hello!

We didn’t visit Mark’s family because COVID numbers are still very high, but luckily his sister was driving through Logan on Monday and she helped us exchange gifts with Mark’s parents!

I worked my USU job Monday through Wednesday. Things are a little slow during the holidays, but there was still enough to do. I was grateful for the slower week so I could begin organizing for 2021.

Mark had so much work to do that he even worked on Christmas Eve day. He’s still putting together a research article to publish. I kept myself busy when he was gone preparing a fancy Christmas Eve dinner. I had been planning it for weeks and it was so fun to see it come together!

We made caprese appetizers, roasted beets, rolls, salad in the shape of a wreath, and honey mustard ham. My mom made extra “funeral potatoes” and shared some of those with us too! Then I made our traditional pistachio pudding dessert.

Poor Flynn really wanted the yummy food on the table! We gave him his own special dish with unseasoned chicken, bell peppers, and cheese.

We had a lovely dinner, listening to Christmas music, and then read Luke 2 by the Christmas tree. We each picked one present to open and drove to look at Christmas lights. We also drove by the temple and enjoyed its beauty.

Then we ate dessert while watching Muppet Christmas Carol. We did a Christmas movie bracket this year and decided that Muppet Christmas Carol and The Grinch (2018) tied for first place, with Arthur’s perfect Christmas earning honorable mention.

Christmas morning we were excited to see what was in our stockings.

After checking out Santa’s surprises, we made a Cherry breakfast bake and put it in the oven. It’s a recipe I got from a member on my mission and it was our first time making it. It was delicious and so festive with the bright red color! It baked while we opened presents.

We really enjoyed giving and receiving presents this year. Gifts is my love language, so I always put a lot of thought and time into choosing just the right gift for someone. It makes me so happy when they like what I gave. This year we made family tree charts for our parents. It took a long time to enter all the names and dates but they turned out beautiful and I think everyone enjoyed them!

I was especially excited to give Mark his ham radio. I had really wanted to surprise him with it, but was quickly overwhelmed by the options and realized I didn’t know what type of radio he wanted. So a month ago I told him to choose a radio and I used my Christmas budget to pay for it.

The other present I really enjoyed giving him was a Mario kart wallet. He had one as a child and it was a prized possession, but it got lost when he was older. I found an identical one on eBay and knew he would be excited. He was 🙂

Mark surprised me with a bow and arrow set! We tried it out in my parents’ yard that afternoon. It was so fun!! I’m going to have to strengthen my muscles to be able to use it better. I also got some books, clothes, jewelry, a scarf from Mark’s parents and an immersion blender from my parents.

Flynn got some toys (which needed repair after about five minutes) and a new collar and harness. He was SO happy on Christmas. He was really good at ripping the paper off our presents.

We FaceTimed Mark’s parents and were able to exchange presents with my parents (while wearing masks). We chatted with our niece who is on a mission in San Antonio. The rest of the day we enjoyed watching movies and munching on holiday treats. We went for a few walks and just enjoyed being together.

I’m always sad when Christmas is over. It’s truly my favorite time of the year and there’s a magical feeling that just can’t be recreated any other time. But we’re looking forward to the future. We’re hopeful a vaccine will become available to us soon so we can travel and gather a bit more!!

Finals week!! Mark didn’t have any final exams, but he spent the week finishing up his class work. Now he is can spend even more time focusing on the research article he is writing. He’ll be working most of the Christmas break to get it done and to prepare for his comprehensive exams.

I enjoyed being on the teacher side of finals for the first time! It was so fun to read my students’ responses.

We started a new Christmas tradition! We’re calling it “Christmas Break Books.” We got the idea from the Philips family in our ward. On the first day of the Christmas break, each person gets a piece of wrapping paper. They must then scavenge the house looking for a book wrapped in their paper. Mark and I hid each other’s books and spent a long time looking for them. We finally gave each other hints because we were ready to be done looking and to start reading. I was very impressed Mark found his after I told him which area of the apartment it was in. I put his behind a drawer in our dresser. He had looked in the drawer several times before he finally found it! Mine was inside our rice cooker!

We spent the evening on the couch reading and munching on raisin cinnamon bread. We both chose books we read years ago and wanted to read again. It was so peaceful and I can’t wait to do this every year!

We finally got some good snow too!! Mark took a long lunch break on Friday so we could make a snow man (complete with mask).

I splurged (and helped a friend hosting a party) and bought myself a set of color street nails. I’m not usually too excited about getting my nails done, but it is really fun to have cute nails for Christmas time! And my vipkid students have loved them!

Mark’s brother, Carl, and his wife asked Mark to make some archery arm bands. It was Mark’s first time making them and I think he did a great job!

Mark is nearing the end of his semester! He had a lot of work to do this week. He’s finishing up his modeling class and writing the introduction to an article he is writing. He attended a Technical Advisory Group for Great Salt Lake.

I met with each of the study groups from my BYUI class this week. I haven’t had a lot of live interactions with my students, but I’ve really grown to love them. I’m going to miss seeing their videos and reading their reports. Several students thanked me for helping them this semester and that made me so happy. I hope I really did make a difference for them.

Our internet was out all across campus early on Thursday which made for a stressful morning. I had to cancel my vipkid classes and send in proof that our internet was not working. Hopefully they approve my proof soon so I don’t have to pay the cancellation fee. On Thursday our water pressure went really low and I was worried it was going to go off again so I filled up a bunch of water bottles! Luckily it only lasted ten minutes this time!

Friday night was the Deseret Book Christmas concert. It was virtual this year, but we still really enjoyed it! We heard the Bonner Family and Nathan Pacheco sing, and David Butler narrated. They’re some of our favorites so it was really great! Mark and I worked on some Christmas gifts while listening.

We found out Mark’s cousin is in quarantine because her roommate has COVID. We were planning to go to Walmart on Saturday and were able to get some groceries for them. We also took them a couple of our movies to borrow. We left them outside their door and they came to the window to thank us. We hope they’ll be well, and were glad we could help. The COVID vaccine has been approved in the US and we’re hopeful things will improve once it gets out to the majority of the population! We can’t wait to visit family, travel, go to church, and go to a store without masks!

My African Violet is blossoming for the first time! I love plants, but have the hardest time keeping them alive. African Violets are pretty hardy, non-toxic for dogs, and beautiful, so I asked Mark to get me one for my birthday last summer. I named her Penelope 🙂

Mark has been been working on a group project for the past five weeks without much success. They were able to meet with the professor this week who discovered the data they were given was wrong so they couldn’t have possibly done the assignment. He gave them an alternative assignment so they could still get an A.

Mark also presented at a virtual conference: Great Salt Lake is for the Birds. It was put on by the Great Salt Lake institute at Westminster college.

This week I put in some extra hours at WebAIM attending a training and a department meeting. I made meatloaf for the first time ever this week too. I hate working with raw meat so I was proud of myself. I found a recipe packed with delicious veggies and it turned out great!

Friday morning, our water was unexpectedly shut off. I had just finished rinsing the shampoo from my hair and luckily had decided to wait until Saturday to wash laundry. It looked like main water line broke and there was quite the hole dug to repair it. We also had a date lunch with curbside pickup from Kneaders that day!

The best meme of the week:

Wednesday morning I worked early so I could be done in time to watch the funeral for Mark’s cousin. We were so sad to hear of his tragic passing last weekend. The funeral was nice-we enjoyed hearing about all the incredible things he did in his 13 years.

COVID cases are so terrible right now that we felt we should stay home and have our own Thanksgiving. It was kind of nice to have a relaxing holiday. We did a Zoom call with my family in the morning and each shared an object we were grateful for. Mark and I watched the National dog show. I love the dog show so much but we usually miss it for thanksgiving dinner. After the show we drove to my parents’ to swap a few side dishes (and they shared their Turkey with us). We stayed outside and had our masks on while we made the quick switch. Then we came home and ate. In the evening we were able to have a Zoom call with Mark’s family. It was fun to see everyone, especially those who live far away. We ended the night with pie!

I didn’t have to work (other than vipkid) on Friday and that was so nice! Mark worked a half day and then we put up Christmas decorations!

Saturday Mark spent five hours working on a group assignment. This has proven really hard and they’re hoping the professor can help next week. We ended the evening setting up a bed beneath the Christmas tree. We watched Christmas movies, read Christmas books, and chatted while eating muddy buddies. It was so fun! Although I think I’m getting too old to sleep on foam pads!!

Mark flew over Great Salt Lake again and spent most of the week doing homework. He and a classmate are doing a difficult group assignment. They meet often over Zoom to work on it.

We have more friends and family members who have COVID now. It’s sad and scary to know people going through it. For some it’s like a cold, while others can hardly breath. We’re doing all we can to stay safe and healthy, especially now that the active case numbers are so high. It’s predicted that one out of every eighty people in the county has the virus.

Mark experimented with no-shave November. He lasted 15 days and then was ready to shave. Here are the results:

This week went by fast! Sunday night Governor Herbert created new mandates for Utah to help us slow the spread of COVID-19. Hospitals are getting overwhelmed and the number of cases are rising quickly. It’s very scary and we’re doing our best to stay safe. Utahns are now required to wear masks when we leave our house (which I’m finding I quite enjoy on our walks- masks keep my nose warm!). For the next two weeks we cannot gather with anyone who does not live in our household. We’ve been FaceTiming my parents rather than going to their house. Most of the virus cases are coming from private gatherings where people do not wear masks. Also, because people ages 20-35 are most likely to have the virus without symptoms, all university students will be tested for the virus weekly.

Mark signed up for his first weekly COVID test this week. He signed up for a time online and went into the student center. He said it was a quick process and President Cockett was even their directing people. The test they are providing (free of charge) is a self done nasal swab and Mark said it wasn’t uncomfortable. He received his results (negative) about seven hours later. USU was one of the only universities to already have a testing center set up, and they turned their vet diagnostics lab into an analysis center for the virus tests. We’re really proud to be part of a university who is so on top of this.

I think the most fun part of the week was celebrating our fourth anniversary! We can’t believe how fast time goes and we’re so grateful for the ways we’ve grown as individuals and a family.

We exchanged gifts in the morning. I gave Mark a new watch band for his Garmin watch and a year’s subscription to the Liahona. I actually ordered two watch bands for him, but a couple weeks ago he showed me a watch bands he wanted to get and it was the exact one I had ordered! I gave that band to him then to make sure he wouldn’t go out and buy himself a duplicate. Mark gave me some pretty hair clips, a box of chocolates, and my favorite flowers (roses and alstroemerias).

We worked in the morning, but took off a few hours in the afternoon to eat lunch together. We also drove up Logan Canyon to Temple Fork. We walked around there for just a few minutes. The snow was really pretty and Flynn had a ton of fun playing in it.

Mark had a lecture to watch online at 4 and I was meeting with a BYUI student over Zoom. After my meeting I went and picked up some food from Texas Roadhouse. We ate there on our honeymoon so we often go there to celebrate our anniversary. It was delicious! I made a pumpkin chocolate chip cheesecake for dessert. We ate dessert while watching Elf (part of our Christmas movie bracket). It was a good day and really nice to have extra time together.