Return of the Covid

Well Covid struck back hard this week.  James and Eileen and I all tested positive this week.  I mostly just felt like I had a head cold, Eileen has mostly had a stuffy nose and a sore throat.  James hardly had any symptoms at all - he felt fine, but I tested him because his friend and I both tested positive.   So he has been doing school at home this week and I've been resting and trying to get better as quickly as possible.  James and I had our positive tests on Monday morning, so we are clear this coming week as long as we are wearing a mask.  I think James is ready to get back to school.  I'm certainly ready to get back to normal life.  

Evelyn and Anna have avoided the rest of us like the plague.  Evelyn had her play this weekend and she was out of the house most of the week for her last few rehearsals and her performances.  I was so glad that my 5 days were up in time to go see her in her play on Saturday.  She did a great job and it was a lot of fun!  Dan went to see it twice, and David and Aaron and I went on Saturday with him.  Plus her whole young women's class went on Thursday!  

Anna was avoiding us because she had the State band competition this weekend.  Her school took 3rd in the state!!  We've still got to keep her healthy though for the upcoming water polo tournament next weekend.  

David would alternately forget to keep distance, then run away yelling "get away from me!!!!"  He sobbed the first night trying to go to bed with out the usual snuggle time with mommy, so since I couldn't snuggle and read with him, I sat outside his door and we talked for a bit before he went to sleep each night.  He had a silly game where he would say "how about a ________ pie"  Then it would be my turn to make up a silly pie.  This would go on until I said it was past bedtime and he needed to go to sleep.  

David has been having a lot of fun drawing lately.  This is his music note person.  He also made other silly people.  He found a learn to draw book and he's been loving trying to follow the directions and then he wants to send all his pictures to Grandma and Grandpa.  

We are looking forward to things getting back to somewhat normal and hoping we've gotten rid of the Covid!!  

Back to mostly normal

Dan is mostly feeling better and after isolating for the required amount of time, he is getting back to normal.  Unfortunatly, Jon and Taz have Covid now, so he has still been working from home a lot.  

Anna took a selfie with David and then James and Evie had to get in on it too!  

David and I have had a pretty normal week.  He was still coughing, but with a negative test and no fever or any other symptoms, he was still able to go to preschool, which made him happy.  

We had one really beautiful day on Wednesday where the sun was shining and we had a great afternoon at the park.  David and his friend were pushing the swings, his friend was pushing a toy in the swing, David was pushing his coat - because it was way too warm to be wearing it!  Then the next day it started raining and has hardly stopped since.  

David and I spend a lot of time playing together at home during the day and he loves to have me take pictures of the things he builds - this is just one of many!  

Anna and I had water polo and enjoyed it.  My fingers are slowly feeling better and regaining mobility.  And playing wasn't a problem at all.  Aaron had soccer practice, but the game was cancelled because of field conditions.  

Dan and I went out on a date on Friday night, we got dinner and then went to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie.  We had a great time together!  

Aaron was a social butterfly this weekend - he had both a friends birthday party to go to on Friday and went to hang out with some friends on Saturday evening and spent all of Sunday on the phone with his friend playing games virtually.  It was funny to watch them play UNO over video chat.  

Evelyn has been busy with play practice this week and will be even more so next week since the play is next weekend.  She is excited and we are excited to get to go see her!  I think she has enjoyed this, but like Eileen was before her play, she is a bit tired!  

Sunday was Mother's Day.  Dan spoiled me!  He made me heart shaped biscuits as usual and honey butter to go with them!  He got me a sweet card with Harry Potter stickers, but he saved the real present until after church!  He got me a new camera, so I had some fun playing around with that this afternoon!  James decorated a cute flower pot with some gardening supplies that they made during their Activity Days activity!  David put a toy and a stuffie and some papers and crochet chains he had made for me into a bag and gave it to me.  He was so sweet!  He wrote a D on one of the papers so I would always remember "D starts with Me!"  

I was playing around with my camera when the boys came out of the kitchen with root beer floats, so I snapped these cute pictures of them with their treats! 

Covid strikes

We've had an exciting week here.  On Tuesday we got a new fridge!  We had been wanting a new fridge for a while (like since we moved here...) but the one we wanted wasn't being made because of the pandemic, so when Dan found it online, he ordered it, but we were skeptical that it would actually come until it was being unloaded and brought in our house.  It is bigger than the other one - it sticks out a bit more, but it's so nice having more space and more useable space!  Dan was at work when it came, so I was sending him picture updates.  

Wednesday was a typically busy day, but Dan and David both started sounding sick.  So Thursday morning, Dan took an at-home COVID test - it came out positive and he went into semi-isolation.  David's coughing started sounding really bad, so we tested him too, but his came back negative.  Dan has mostly been hiding out in our room and I've been sleeping in the guest room on the bed that was still out from when my parents were here.  

Thursday night, I went to play water polo and had a great time, but in the last 5 minutes of the night, I blocked a shot and jammed my first 2 fingers on my right hand.  They started swelling up (the picture doesn't do justice to how fat they were or how purple!) and turning purple!  On Friday, David's cough was sounding really bad, so I took him in to see a doctor - she said it's probably just a virus and gave us some things to do for him.  While there, I showed the doc my finger and she said I should have it looked at just to make sure there are no breaks, so I set up an appointment for myself and had an x-ray done - no fractures, just jammed.  So now I just need to wait for it to get better!  

The fun part was that I was playing the organ for Sacrament meeting on Sunday, thankfully my fingers were stuck in a perfect position for piano and organ playing.  I went to try it out on Saturday to make sure that it would be ok and it really didn't hurt at all to play!  

Church was wonderful,  Aaron has started coughing now too, so he, Dan and David stayed home and watched church at home, then watched bible stories during second hour.  The rest of us went and enjoyed a wonderful fast and testimony meeting!  

Dan and I are getting very tired of quarantine and Dan is getting very tired of being stuck in his room all day, so we are counting down the days until he's not contagious anymore.  I'm ready to get back into my own room, in my own bed and be able to hug and kiss my husband again.  

Back to normal?

 We've had a busy week.  Full of the usual stuff - though not much park time since the weather has been cold and wet.  The kids had school as usual and sports and friends and activities.  

Aaron had soccer practice and a game on Saturday.  They won the game, but it was rough once since the ref wouldn't call anything for either side and the kids began testing the bounds of what they could get away with.  

Anna had a track meet - she is getting to where she can consistently clear 7' on the pole vault!  But it was an away meet, so we didn't get to watch.  

Evelyn is still loving gymnastics and is eagerly looking forward to her upcoming mini olympics that her gym puts on.  She is now trying to figure out how she could possibly get a bar or beam at home to practice on.  

Eileen found another things she wanted to do for an outing, she found out about a reptile and exotic pets show that was happening at the same convention center as the gem show.  So Saturday, we headed out and grabbed some lunch, but when we got there she wasn't feeling very good at first, thankfully walking around helped and once she got inside and was distracted by the animals, she was fine.  She loved getting to see and hold snakes, and bearded lizards and geckos and hedgehogs and rats and even some mantis'.  We had a great time together and then headed home in time for all the stuff going on in the evening.  

Anna had been gone all day for band day and Dan had a leadership meeting, then we had the adult session of Stake Conference.  In the evening, we had dinner together, then Dan and I headed to conference.  The talks were wonderful and I think my musical number went well.  Then it got done earlier than expected, so we met up with a bunch of people from the ward to get some dessert.  It was a fun evening and then we headed home for bed! 

Sunday session of Stake Conference was also wonderful.  The choir did a great job and they were a joy to sing with and direct!  The talks were all wonderful!  After church, we had some friends from the ward over for dinner and games and had a great time!  The kids had fun playing together and so did the adults!  

Spring is not here, but Easter is!

We have had a fun and busy week!  It started off with snow - enough snow to stick and cause a delayed start for the schools.  It then stayed cold enough and kept snowing/sleeting/hailing enough to keep a bit of white stuff on the ground for most of the week.  

Tuesday was back to normal stuff - school, preschool and sports.  I'm still loving playing water polo each week, but Tuesday was a rough night - I could just not make my body do what I wanted it to do!  

Wednesday was the last day of actual school for the week, so they were excited.  I picked up my parents at the airport early in the afternoon, then we enjoyed an evening together chatting and being together.  

Thursday was a crazy day!!  Evelyn found out that she was supposed to be at play practice that morning, but she hadn't been told and she had an ortho appointment that morning, so she was late.  Then in the afternoon the girls all had eye appointments...that we were late for...  We finally got home and Sandi came over with the kids to hang out and play.  We did some egg decorating and the kids had a blast playing together.   

Thursday night, my dad came with me to watch Anna and I play water polo.  Thankfully I had a much better night than Tuesday and it was fun having my dad there to watch!  

My dad taught James and David how to do Sudoku and now James is obsessed.  David was even able to figure it out a bit.  It was pretty cute!  

On Friday, Eileen convinced Grandma that she should try sushi because not all sushi had raw fish, and so she talked Grandma into taking Eileen and I out to lunch at a Sushi place.  We had a great time and Grandma decided sushi wasn't all bad after all!  

Evelyn had her band play-a-thon fundraiser all morning and into the afternoon at school, then we headed out to Taz's birthday party.  Eileen and Anna stayed home, but the rest of us went and had fun.  Taz was having his party at a paintball place.   The kids mostly had a good time.  Evelyn took one paintball to the hip and decided she was done, James only lasted a couple rounds longer before he took a painful one to the hand and was done.  (and these were supposed to be the softer ones!  Dan and Aaron played the whole time and ended up with a few good welts.  Jon said he'd give some one $5 to run a gauntlet with their shirt off and Aaron decided to do it.  He went though and got pelted good, and Jon was impressed enough to give him $20 for it!  lol  Aaron was a great sport about the whole thing!  

Saturday morning, we went to a park near Sandi and Jon's house and did an Easter Egg hunt.  Eileen helped hide eggs, and the kids all had fun finding them.  They weren't crazy about getting up before noon on a Saturday, but they had fun.  

After, we had lunch with Sandi and Jon and Dan took Aaron to his soccer game.  Then we went to see Sonic 2.  Dan picked up Eileen and Anna and took them home to get some cleaning done and I took the kids to the movie with Sandi and her kids and Grandma.  We had fun and the movie was cute!  

Sunday, we went to church and had a wonderful Easter program.  Aaron was speaking, James and David were singing with the primary, Eileen was directing the young women as they sang and Anna had a little solo with the young women and I did a solo accompanied by Anna.  My parents and Sandi came to watch.  :)  After Sacrament, Sandi and my mom headed back to Sandi's and my dad stayed and came home with us after.  In the evening, we had an Easter dinner with the family at Sandi and Jon's place.  We had a great (mostly) vegan dinner!  Evelyn and Kai were so cute - they kept trying to do gymnastic stuff together and were challenging themselves to get tougher - which included lots of time doing handstands against the wall.  They were also trying to see who could stay up the longest and trying to both do at least 10 min total.  

After, we headed home for scriptures and prayers and then Stake Choir practice.  I'm looking forward to singing with them next week - what a wonderful experience it's been to do this!  

Spring is here!!! ....maybe?

We had a great week - busy as usual, but fun!  David loves helping cook!  Dan decided to make macarons again and David was super helpful!  lol!  

 I started playing with the masters water polo team this week.  It's exhausting of course, since I'm out of shape and out of practice, but it was a blast!  Everyone has been really nice and it's been fun to get to know some of the people in the water polo scene here a bit better - it's a bit of a small community.  There were a lot of other coaches and refs there playing too. 

On Friday, Eileen and David and I went to the Gems and minerals fair.  Eileen used it for her outing and we went and looked at the gemstones and fossils and beads and Eileen got a snake charm and a couple bracelets and David got an elephant.  Then we headed out for Sushi for lunch.  We went to one of the Sushi places with the conveyor belt of sushi and David was so excited by it - he wanted to grab every plate he saw!  

When we got home, it was just in time to go get James, but it was hailing, so I drove to pick him up instead of walking, then I took the boys (James and David and Caleb) to the library.  James wanted to get a couple books that they had there and while we were there, they were doing a puzzle painting activity.  So they all painted puzzles and we brought them home.  

In the evening, the girls had their book club with their friends, then after, Dan had a guys night with some friends.  

The weather has been crazy this week - not only have there been crazy shifts during the days (rain, hail, wind and sun) but it has also gone from sunny and in the 70's on Thursday to Snowing now as I type this.  We have enjoyed the nice and sunny days with lots of fun time at the park, but everyone is amazed at snow in April here!  lol  

Saturday morning was crazy.  Anna had a water polo tournament this weekend.  I enjoyed watching her play and had a nice time chatting with another coach from the area during the games.  Evelyn also had a mandatory play practice Saturday morning, Dan and the youth had a Stake Youth service activity, and Aaron had a soccer game.  After we finished that, we used our get out pass to go to a nearby place and had fun in the arcade for a bit.  Then we finally headed home for dinner and Anna passed out on the couch and stayed asleep there until Sunday morning.  

I took this picture of Dan and David playing the driving game at the arcade because I found it so funny that Dan was having to push David's pedal for him so he could drive!  

I was leading singing time today during primary and we did the singing measles activity and I let the kids give me the measles - and they had a blast covering me with stickers and one of the teachers was sweet enough to catch a picture of it!  

After church were meeting and we went to a friends house to play games for a bit, then Dan had a meeting and Anna had another game, and Eileen had an interview, after all that, we finally got our much anticipated dinner!  

Dan had some fun playing Chinese Checkers with the kids and we had the first of our Easter week lessons for scriptures, then the girls and I went to Stake Choir!  We had a good turn out and I'm having so much fun with these wonderful talented people who are so willing to share their talents!  

Conference Weekend!

This week has been beautiful outside, so I've spent a lot of time at the park with the younger boys.  James has a group of friends that he meets up with there and they go and will happily play as long as their parents will let them.  I'm happy to have them playing outside and having fun, so whenever possible, we go!  

Anna had a crazy busy week - she had her jazz concert on Tuesday which was a lot of fun and she did a great job!  It's fun getting to watch her play her trumpet, we can hardly see her in the back on her euphonium!  Evie and I went and loved the show!  

Anna also had a track meet on Wednesday, She cleared 7' in the pole vault and now she's getting to work on turning during her jump which will help her get even higher!  She's really enjoying pole vault!  

Evelyn's foot was still hurting from last weekend, so we were a bit worried about her going to gymnastics on Thursday, but thankfully by then she was back to walking on it normally.  She really loves gymnastics, so I'm glad she was able to go and participate.  

Friday night, Dan and I went to see The Lost City for a date night.  We had a gift card and had a fun time watching the movie!  

Saturday was General Conference!  We made our 7 layer dip for the afternoon session and then after, David helped Dan start the smoked pork that we were supposed to have started on Friday.  (oops!)  He was so funny helping smear the stuff on the pork! 

Aaron had his first soccer game of the spring season Saturday at noon.  It went well, he's having to remember all he learned last season after just one practice, but he is enjoying it!  It helps that he's got a great coach. 

Sunday Dan made the monkey bread.  For some reason, the kids (especially David) kept calling it banana bread.  It came out perfectly this year!  YUM!  The only hard part was waiting for it to cool enough that our fingers didn't get burned!  

The conference messages were wonderful and our kids actually stayed there mostly listening for all the sessions.  That was by far the best behaved they have ever been for a conference weekend.  

Spring Break!!!

 We have had a wonderful spring break!  Monday was just the usual Monday stuff - library and such, plus a trip to the library, and the kids got to do a music camp with Sister Shum.  

Tuesday was another music camp with Sister Shum, and Anna had track practice and Aaron had an orthodontist appointment since he had a bracket pop off.  I did some more yard work and then in the afternoon, we went to OMSI with James' friend Caleb.  We had a great time - the older kids really enjoyed the new teen area!  

Wednesday was more track practice for Anna, and some shopping to get things ready for the trip to the coast.  

Thursday morning Dan worked for a bit, Anna went to track practice and I cooked and packed.  By afternoon, we were ready to go!  We drove down and got there in plenty of time to get checked in and unpacked and head to the beach!  

We used the fire pit to (try to) cook up hotdogs and smores for dinner, but we had some problems getting the fire to light - the fire pit was just too wet!  But we ate and had fun.  

I think the kids were nearly as excited about the hot tub at our rental place as they were about the beach just a short walk away.  They loved it and were great about following the rules! 

Friday morning we spent some time at the beach.  There was enough wind to fly the kites, but barely, so we had lots of crashes too, but the kids had fun!   Then in the afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa got in to stay the night with us.  We went to check out some nearby tide pools.  They were awesome!  We saw so much and the day was just perfect!  We loved exploring and seeing the amazing sea creatures!  Evelyn was much less thrilled than the rest of us - she thought almost all of it was icky and her foot was hurting from a painful handspring on the beach the day before.  

After, we dropped Grandma and Grandpa and the younger kids back off at the beach house for some more hot tub time and Dan and I took Eileen to try to find some more stuffing for her centaur.  She REALLY wanted it done to take pictures on the trip, but we hadn't gotten enough stuffing and her hands hurt from the crocheting, so I finished it off for her and we found a nearby little craft store.  Unfortunately they didn't have any stuffing, but fortunately it was small town full of sweet people and the lady at the store carded some left over wool for Eileen to use as stuffing - she spent nearly half an hour carding it for us and then gave it to us for free, so we bought some yarn and thanked her profusely!  We got Eileen's centaur finished and then we took them out on Saturday morning to take pictures on the beach before we headed home.  

We had a great dinner and evening of chatting and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday night, then headed to bed.  They left the next morning to head up to John and Melissa's house and we had a last little trip to the beach and packed up to go home.  We asked a sweet older man walking by to take a picture for us, but I think he struggled with my camera, because these were the pictures we got - one cut off David and the other cut off Aaron.  But we were grateful and had a good laugh after!  At least between the two pictures, we got everyone.  :)  

Sunday we got up early to head down Emmalee's ward for Samuel's baby blessing.  It was wonderful to be there and the Relief Society lesson was wonderful.  After, we went to John and Melissa's for lunch with their family.  It was a huge group and we had a great time with them all!  We got home and then in the evening, we had dinner with the Blanchards and had fun playing some games with them, then we headed home and dropped off the boys and Eileen and I headed to Stake Choir.  

It was a wonderful Spring Break - it was so nice to get away for a couple days and just be together without distractions!  

Spring!

This week has had some beautiful spring weather and some great spring showers!  Eileen decided this week that she wanted to cook Ramen - not the cheap packets of Top Ramen, but real ramen.  So she found a recipe and then she and Dan had to go to an Asian market for most of the ingredients.   They found these durians and had to take a picture!  She made the meal up for Friday night - it was a long process - and she had to start some of it on Thursday evening and spent a good chunk of Friday working on it too.  We learned some things in the process, but it was still really good!  

David was coughing early in the week, so I kept him home from preschool for the first part of the week, but on Thursday, he hadn't done anything more than cough, so we had him wear his mask and he went to preschool and had a great time!  

We had some really lovely weather this week and so we got to spend some time at the park running around and playing.  The kids got letters from Grandpa Cox - and David got a coloring sheet in his letter - it was a color by number sheet and he's been loving it!  He colors so carefully and keeps wanting to show it to everyone!.  

Saturday morning, the weather was nice, so Dan and David and I went to the garden store to look around and get some things for the yard.  Since the weather was nice, we spent some of the morning working out in the yard together and got some of it looking MUCH nicer!  f

Then David used his lunch date coupon to go out to Wendy's with Dan and I.  The afternoon was mostly spent in the craft room and having fun together

David had a very low fever for a little while on Saturday, so we kept him home from church on Sunday (even though he was fine Sunday morning) just to be safe.  Dan had to stay home with him this time since I was leading the music and accompanying the musical number.   Church was wonderful!  The talks were great and the music went well!  After we had a quiet afternoon playing games and reading scriptures and making yummy food.  In the evening we had our first Stake Choir rehearsal and I am directing the choir - it was wonderful, we had a pretty good turnout and a wonderful time singing beautiful music.  

Tale as old as Time

This has been a rather crazy week.  Eileen had a couple days off from play practices which was good, because she was getting a bit burnt out by then.  Then it was back to the grind for a very long and tiring weekend for her.  

Weather has been back and forth between rain and sunny - often in the same day.  We've had some fun days playing at the park with friends and some wet walks!  

Anna had her swim banquet this week.  It was fun and the food was good and she had a good time with friends.  

The week was also busy and full of water polo and youth activities and school and Anna has officially started track practice.  

Thursday was an early release day - which just meant that I had to do more driving the kids around everywhere...  They wouldn't let the track team practice right after school, so Anna took the bus home, then we drove her back for track a couple hours later...  But Evelyn could stay after for her play practice and Aaron could stay after to practice his euphonium in the band room.  And of course, Eileen started her last weekend with the play. 

Friday night, Dan and I went to see the play.  Anna watched too, since she had gotten back from a band festival right before the play started and she had no ride home, so we got her a ticket and she watched with a friend up in the balcony and and Dan and I watched from our prime second row seats!  :) Eileen was the cutest little ice bucket and villager ever!  She did great and the play was really well done by everyone!  After, we took Eileen and Anna to a sleepover birthday party for a good friend of theirs.  

Saturday was one of those quicksilver weather days - the morning was beautiful and sunny and warm and we cleaned out cars and did some yard work, then it got cloudy and rainy.  Evie used her coupon for a lunch date to go out to chick fil a with me, then I took her and David to watch the play.  David loved it, he sat still and watched the whole thing and after told me all his favorites.  At first his favorite was Belle because she was so pretty, then he changed his mind to Lefou being his favorite because he kept falling down.  Either way, he loved it!  

Saturday evening, we had a ward Pi day party and had fun with friends and eating pie!  Then we took Anna, Aaron and some of their friends to a youth dance.  Aaron had liked the last one enough to want to go again and he danced with 5 girls this time - all girls he didn't know!  

Church meetings were wonderful, but between the dance and the play and daylight savings, I'm not sure most of my kids were awake for much of it...  both of the older girls took 4 hour naps after church.  :) 

Jam and Colorado

Well, we finally got our fruit last Sunday, so this week after the purees had thawed, we started making jam.  We now have a fresh supply of home made jam to last us awhile!  We did strawberry, raspberry and boysenberry.  We all really wanted some rolls to eat the jam with, but Eileen was exhausted from tech week for her play, so those would have to wait a bit.  But we have a refrigerator full of the foam from on top that we are finding lots of way to enjoy! 

We have had a busy week of school and sports and activities and such, David and I had fun playing magnets this week and he was so proud of this truck he made that he wanted me to take a picture and send it to Grandma Jones. 

Evelyn auditioned for her middle school play which is High School Musical Jr.  She did well enough to get called back!  She is so excited!  

Friday afternoon, I headed to the airport to go to Colorado for Grandpa's 95th birthday.  There was some drama with my ticket - as in when I got to the airport, I didn't have one - when we got the tickets online, United apparently went far enough into the process to get our credit card approved, but then didn't finish it and charge it, so our reservation got cancelled.  Thankfully there was still room on the flight and I was able to make it to Colorado, but had to pay a lot more than we should have because of their mistake.  I stayed with Frank and Tina while I was there and tried to help out with party prep as much as possible.  It was a great party and Grandpa really loved being surrounded by people he loves and who love him.  It was wonderful to get to see family and spend time together.  In the evening, the family all went out for dinner and then we sent Grandpa home to rest from a long day, while the rest of us did our best to get safely home in the snow!  

The next day, I had a brunch with Mom and Sandi and Grandpa and then after that, a late lunch with Sandi and Mom and Tina.  It was a wonderful weekend!  

Things on the home font went well too.  Dan sent me picture of Eileen's rolls and and his Lemon Meringue pie to make sure I came home with all haste.  As much as I wanted to get home quickly, the weather had been snowing steadily all day in Denver area, so of course all the flights were delayed, so while I got in later than I had planned, I was really just glad to get home safely.  

Christmas of 2020, I had planned on and tried to get Dan the new PS5, but it has been impossible to get - and even still now can be almost impossible to get, I say almost, because Dan finally managed to find one online and get it before they were sold out again.  It arrived this week and he's excited (and I'm excited for him!)