Laura on Leave Part 2!

This week Laura is in Denver for a few days, so another week of getting things done solo! So far, it hasn't been as bad, but today is the worst day of all. After I get the kids from school, the schedule is packed! Emmeline has a piano lesson and that goes from 4:15 to 5, then we have to pretty much book it to her swimming which Kelly is going to monitor because I have to take Connor to his baseball practice. Emmeline has scouts pretty much right after swimming and then after Connor's baseball, he has scout from 7:30 to whenever. Gonna be a late night. I don't know why we have so many things going on all the time, but, I think we should cut down on the kids' activities...just my opinion!

Laura on Leave

 So, with Laura on leave for work for a few days this week on what has probably been the busiest week so far in the year, it's apparent that Laura helps so much in alleviating the amount of stuff that one has to do for the kids. It hasn't been as bad as I or Laura has thought, but it's still rough. Waking up earlier and making their lunches and making sure all their school stuff is in order has probably been the worst. The other stuff is basically being a taxi service for their activities. Using a lot of gas, that's for sure.

The good news is that Laura is back tonight. The bad news is that it's only for a few days and then she has to go to Colorado this time for a few days for work. To top it off, Wesley and Sammie are coming over this weekend for babysitting.

Next week might be a little busier than this week, so we'll see how that goes. We really need to just stop doing all these activities for them as they're starting to overlap and stuff and affecting our "usual" routine or having dinner around 5 and stuff. We're having stagger dinner or just have dinner late, which further affects bedtime. There's something going on literally every day. I don't remember doing so many things when I was a kid, but maybe I'm remembering wrong. My Mom worked a lot so that's probably the reason that I couldn't do much, but the only thing I really remember doing was piano during the evening and that was probably for only a year or two. I did play little league for a couple of years - maybe only 1. I don't remember going or how I got to any practices and games and stuff.

Anyway, I should get some stuff done.

And School Starts!

Not sure how time passed so fast, but here we are in August and the kids have officially started school yesterday. Woohoo. It seems like every Summer gets harder and harder as they get bored pretty fast. Anyway, it went fine for the first day. Connor didn't get the teacher that he wanted, but I'm sure it will be fine. The choice of classmates seem good as well. Emmeline did get the teacher she wanted, so we'll see how that goes. I've been at the school quite a bit over the Summer to work on the tech stuff and during the Summer, the church side was upgrading stuff and affecting the school side. It seems like a big mess at the moment with so many people working on stuff...hopefully, things just continue to work. 

Yesterday was also coincidentally me and Laura's 14th anniversary. We went to a coffee shop in the morning to relax. It was good to do without the kids. We talked about our trip to Japan. I didn't mention, but we did get tickets a few weeks ago finally. We saw some availability for the dates we are planning on and, while the flight to Japan isn't business, the return trip is, so we booked it hoping to upgrade it if seats open up closer to our departure, which is next May. Literally just under a year away, ha. So, we've been doing more detailed planning now that we have those dates hopefully set in stone and that Japan opens up by then. Things have been getting slightly worse the last few weeks for Japan, so good thing we didn't go this Thanksgiving because that would not have happened for sure. I think the most difficult part is getting the hotels we want at an affordable price. Since Japan does hotels weird, they charge per person per room, and usually they aren't ideal for travelling with kids, it's gonna get expensive if we have to get 2 rooms everywhere we go. We'll figure it out, though.

So, here's to another new school year. They are doing piano again despite my efforts, so, oh well. More stress there. Maybe they won't play any sports?!

Summer Update

 Quite a bit of time has passed, I see. Thinking back, I REALLY am not remembering much. The coronavirus stuff was still going on, but it seemed to be easing up a little bit. Now, we're trying to adjust to it, treating it like a flu-like thing rather than a bad illness. Of course, who knows, maybe it's still bad but we're just trying to move on from it or another mutation might occur. Let hope not. 

Near the end of March during Spring Break, Laura had found this airbnb that was literally a treehouse (well, not really, it wasn't in a tree, but, you know) built on this guy's huge property. We took a few day trip to Arkansas for Connor's birthday. It turned out to be a very costly trip, so we joke that it was his birthday trip for the next 5 birthdays. It was, literally, though. We had a fun time and we even ate out at a german restaurant. Since then, we have gone out to eat at a few places and have also started to go into stores and events without masks. The only time is if it's required like the doctor's office and such. It's weird that it feels weird now to not wear a mask.

The end of school went fine as well. Even attended the fine arts night for the first time (for me) since Connor was playing a piano piece. It's funny to see all the kids doing stuff. I know they're doing their best and some were good at what they were doing, but kudos to them since I dare not even think about doing anything like that even if the audience was only like 100 people. I do wish I was really good at one thing though, like the banjo, so I could play and show it off.

Near the end of last month, Emmeline got some kind of weird rash that covered the lower body and some on her upper. We didn't know what it was but the pediatrician thinks that it was a staph infection that spread from this arm injury that Emmeline had a couple of days before this all started. She was playing on the treadmill at a neighbors house and somehow burned her skin pretty bad. I don't even know how it was possibly, but anyway. I could see it being the cause. She did also swim at Dave and Karen's pool in Tulsa, so who knows. After a few days of antibiotics, it started to get better. I was nervous because this last weekend was Emmeline's dance recital and thought she might be self-conscious. I think it was just me, though. Still, I would be awkward with that kind of thing if I had to work with kids that had that, even if it wasn't necessarily contagious. 

The next couple of weeks are a bit busy. They has some various summer camps and I have to work on the new church website launch. Laura and the kids are camping right now for scouts for a couple of days. It's literally the hottest day of the year so far and there's like a heat warning for the entire state. I can't imagine camping and having to set up the tent and stuff in this heat, but...their choice. Not my idea of fun. Ticks, too. 

After they get back, Laura is heading out to Denver for a few days, so I'll have to do the kids alone during that. The schedule clears up a bit after that, so maybe we'll go pick up my Mom from Dallas for a week or so to visit. Can't remember the last time we went to visit. A few months ago?

Anyway, should get to bed. Libby's been sad most of the day. 

It's 2022...

...and nothing seems to have changed since last year around this time. Sure, we're all vaccinated and even boosted, but it seems like we're going back to the same things again and apparently worse. I dunno why people can't just get a shot, or even just pretend it's just like the flu and get the shot. We were hoping this would have been all over by this year, but it seems like this year is going to go the same way as last year.

We can probably say that our trip to Japan this late Fall/Winter is not going to happen because of it. We're now looking toward Summer of 2023. Laura doesn't like that because Japan gets so hot during it. I don't think I would mind it that much, but at the same time, I don't really remember how it was when I went. It was during the Summer, but I was also in...middle school, I think? So, maybe the heat didn't bother me as much. I distinctly remember just playing out in front of the house I was staying at and going up into the mountains behind their house/farm I think it was and exploring around. Anyway, for that reason, we haven't bought the award tickets yet and I don't think that I will since we'll probably end up exchanging it or whatever. It's refundable, so that's good.

So, Christmas. Eeeeeeverything seemed to be looking good up until the week leading up to Christmas. Every year, SOMETHING seems to go wrong, even though we try our best to stay healthy and not disrupt anything. I got sick probably the beginning of December with a cold/allergy thing. I had post-nasal drip and coughing and sinus congestion for about a week, was better for a few days, and it came back again. I didn't know what it was. Maybe it was Covid, but I was pretty sure it wasn't. I thought it was just a bad cold that became a sinus infection. 

Now, we were about a week out from Christmas and, subsequently, going to Tulsa. Of course, the DAY before our Christmas Eve, which actually this year ended up being actual Christmas, I had taken the kids bike riding around our neighborhood school. Connor says to me during it the dreaded phrase - "My stomach feels a little sick." At that moment, I knew he was coming down with something, but was hoping that it was nothing. That night, sure enough, he felt sicker and had a minor fever. The next day we kept him rested and got our Christmas Eve Japanese take-out. Right as we came home, he threw up in our entryway. Great. I figured he had the stomach flu or something. His fever never really got that high and was actually better a couple of days afterwards. We headed to Tulsa a day later than we were planning. I was still dealing with my sinus infection and had trouble not coughing sporadically, so I wanted to stay, but went in the end. It turned out all right. I had come home a day early because the Peloton was supposed to be delivered that week. When I got home, Emmeline was now the one who was sick and had a fever. It's weird because she never really gets a fever. So, they came home. For the next few days, we all took it easy and everyone seemed to get better, except me, of course. I did an e-visit with my doctor and he got me antibiotics, but I didn't think it really helped, to be honest. I figured it was just a viral sinus infection.

Fast forward to last Monday and after he came back from school, he seemed more sniffly than normal, so Laura decided to give him a home Covid test. Low and behold, it immediately showed positive. He seemed to be upset by it. For the next week, he was basically in his room to keep it contained. The next day, however, we all got tested. Connor's test came back the next day positive as we figured, but everyone else was negative, which I thought was weird. Of course, Emmeline's test was lost, but we figured she was negative, too, since she had no symptoms really. Not sure if we all had it in the past or what, but that's that.

The kids went back to school today. We were all going a bit crazy staying cooped up in the house. The school is getting a huge wave of cases, so hopefully they don't catch it again.

I just want it to be over.