2021 - Adjusting to the COVID World

 2021

It's hard to know where to start on describing 2021 as it was a year of managing COVID and so many other unexpected things.

• Karl retired from Nelson Labs in March 2021 after working ther for over 10 years.  He got a part time job at Alpine Business supplies and is enjoying working there a few hours a day.
• Birthday shopping trips with the grands was somewhat back to normal - some mall/target shopping and eating out like in previous years and we made it work.
• Getting vaccinated for COVID was a big thing - I got my first shot in January and the second in February.  Karl got his in February and the second in March.  Haley, Karl, and I got our boosters in the fall.
• My sister Jackie was in the hospital for 8 days due to COVID - in ICU for some of that time.

*Written April 2022

Family

Should have been published in Summer 2015

Karl and I have been a couple for over 40 years - married for almost 39.  Yes, we are getting up there in years of marriage and years in age.  It's been an interesting life together filled with ups and downs and agreements and disagreements good and not so good.  But, we've hung in there and made our marriage work and made it happy.

Today at the end of our Sunday sacrament meeting everyone received a copy of the Proclamation of the Family.  In paragraph six it states that as a couple and heads of our family we have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for our children and that we have a sacred duty to rear our children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live and that we will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.

2020 Ended and Almost 2 Months In with 2021

2020 came and went and what a year it was!!

• New family circumstances for Haley and the kids
• Family quarantine and school dismissal due to COVID-19, for months
• No church meetings, for months
• 5.7 magnitude EARTHQUAKE (and hundreds of aftershocks)
• No NCAA March Madness (only madness related to COVID)
• Disneyland closed
• Foot surgery - Annie
• New house for the Howdens
• Master's degree completed - WKP
• CPA exams passed - WKP
• 2 baptisms - Jack and Quinn (many family members joined via Zoom)
• New job for Willie
• CRAZIEST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE
• COVID testing - yes, nose swabs and spitting in a vial
• Zoom baptism from Melbourne, Australia 
• New school and work schedules - learning and working from home are possible
• Video technology skills put to good use
• Zoom church
• COVID cases in our extended family
• Serious illness - me - tests, scans, and procedures

2021 - 2 Months In

We (Petersen family) are very blessed!!  So far this year, we are healthy and have been free from major illness and unexpected events.  All in the family who can work are gainfully employed.  We continue to be a family of believers through our commitment to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. We've had Sunday dinners and celebrated at least one birthday. The kids are going to to school (face-to-face) and everyone seems to be happy and doing okay. 

Add one more college graduate to the family!

Willie graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S., Accounting at the end of fall semester, December 2018, suma cum laude,by the way.  He'll participate in graduation events this week on Thursday, May 2 and Friday, May 4.  He began his tenure at the U in the fall of 2013 after high school graduation.  Winter 2014 brought about a new experience, called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Baltic State of Lithuania, Lithuanian speaking.  Upon return home in March 2016, he got a job working at Cyprus Credit Union and spent the spring and summer reconnecting with friends and a more temporal life style.  He started back at the U fall 2016 as a Business Scholar, an amazing college transition program associated with the David Eccles School of Business at the U.  Over the course of the next two years he was very involved in the Business Scholars (or the b-schols as we know it) program which included a trip to Seattle, a summer experience to Scandinavia, a fall trip to Atlanta, a spring trip to Guatemala, and other amazing experiences.  He managed to get a job as a peer adviser for the College of Business which has worked out to be a pretty decent part time job.

Eventually, Willie landed on accounting as a major and mapped out a pathway to a big four accounting firm internship at Deloitte Teusch during spring semester this year.  At the conclusion of the internship, he was offered a position with Deloitte Teusch and will begin working there upon completion of a masters of accounting 2019-2020.  Phew!!!  Needless to say, Karl and I and the whole family are very proud of Willie Petersen!!

Hold on for what's next!

As a graduation present of sorts, Willie is headed away for a month to travel the world.  From May 4 - 12, he be leading a trip of Business Scholars students and staff through Central Europe - Budapest, Hungary; Krakow, Poland; and, Prague, Czech Republic.  On May 11, nephew/cousin, Parker Wood will meet up with Willie

In the spring, of 2018, Willie met Danielle Ashby.  Their friendship has progressed over the year to be ready to commit their lives to each other and plan to be married on June 29, 2019. Exciting times ahead.  Danielle is a graduate of BYU and teaches dance and yoga at Viewmont High School is Davis School District.  We are excited to have her in our family.

It's a New Year

Excited for a new year, 2019 is certainly going to be one for the record books.  I have set a goal to write a personal history this year.  I've read a few of the personal histories of my ancestors in the past week, and sadly, they were written by distant relatives.  I want my kids and grandchildren to know me through my own words.

Haley gave me the quote below framed and ready to go on a wall in my home.  I love it!

States Visited

From West to East:

Washington - Family, ASCA, consulting work
Oregon - Family, ASCA, consulting work
California - Family, ASCA, Reach Higher Initiative, Career Choices
Idaho - Family, ACTE, consulting work
Nevada - Family, ACTE, consulting work
Arizona - Family, ASCA, consulting work
Montana - Family
Wyoming - Family, consulting work
Colorado - Family, ASCA, ACTE
New Mexico - NCDA
North Dakota - Family, ASCA
South Dakota - Family, ACTE
Nebraska - consulting work
Kansas - ACTE
Texas - Family, ASCA
Minnesota - Family, ASCA
Iowa - consulting work
Missouri - Family, ASCA, ACTE
Louisiana - Family, ACSA, ACTE, NOSCA
Michigan - Family, consulting work
Illinois - Family, NOSCA, PBIS Leadership, NCDA
Tennessee - consulting work
Indiana - FAFSA Completion Project
Ohio - ACTE
Michigan - Family, consulting work
Pennsylvania - Family, consulting work
New York - Family, College Board
New Jersey - Family, consulting work
Massachusetts - Family, ASCA, Reach Higher Initiative
Connecticut - Family
Rhode Island - Family
Washington, DC - Family, ACTE, NCDA, NOSCA
Virginia - Family
Maryland - Family
North Carolina - ACTE
Georgia - Family, ACTE, consulting work
Florida - ACTE, Reach Higher Initiative

Updated Feb 2024

Maine - Family

New Hampshire - Family

Vermont - Family 

Fall Report

It's been 7 months or so since I last reported out to the blog world.  I look back on that time and think about the craziness of my world.  My life is definitely on fast forward and clipping along more quickly than I can keep up.  And, it's a good life!

So what keeps me going?  Well . . . . . . . .

I am a mom, grandma, wife, and daughter and such roles and associated responsibilities are at the top of my priority list.

I am a working mom, grandma, wife, and daughter so that means in addition to family time I spend more hours I can report working with students, staff, and others to hopefully make their lives better.

I am a churchgoing, working mom, grandma, wife, and daughter so that means in addition to family time and working more hours than I can report, I gladly devote time serving others in my LDS ward and stake.

My Life - not in any size or color priority.