FEBRUARY

ICE SKATING

We used our Get Out Pass from Christmas and went ice skating! It was quite a workout! Afterwards we went to Perkins for an early dinner. It was a fun day!

LILY - WAX MUSEUM

The 5th grade always has a project called "Wax Museum" every year. Each student chooses a person in history to learn about and then they write a short 'auto-biography' on them. And spend months memorizing it. Lily chose Marian Anderson. She was a famous African American singer around 1920s-1950s. For Wax museum, Lily dressed up like her and when you would push a button in front of her she would come to life and tell you her auto-biography. When we went, it was later in the afternoon and Lily was pretty flush and tired but she still did a great job!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Well we ate pizza for Valentine's day at 8:00 at night because Lily and I had volleyball practice and Crystal had a soccer game. But at least we were still able to sit together for dinner even if it was late. Ty made me a chocolate bouquet that I swear I took a picture of but apparently I didn't. He also bought himself a big chocolate candy bar because I didn't have time to make it to the store to get him something. Haha. We got the kids each an "I love you this much" candy bar that's a yard long. Jay and Crystal got Twix ones and Lily got a Reese's one. They had 18 candy bars in each package. This was on top of the crazy amount of candy Grandma and Grandpa Gordon got them. Grandma made a poster for each kid using candy and candy bars. They all thought that was neat. She also surprised Grandpa by getting all the granddaughters shirts that said 'Sorry boys my Grandpa is my Valentine." They changed into them and Grandpa came upstairs to see all his Valentine's! I wish we would have gotten a picture with him in the middle of them! I don't know why we didn't think of that! One of Jay's strawberries actually looked like a heart on the inside so he begged me to take a picture of it. Jay was asked to make his Valentine Box at home and bring it on Vday. I kind of left him to it himself and his ideas just kept getting bigger and bigger. I had to help wrap the boxes and glue them together but it was all his idea. due to color choices everyone in the family kept saying it looked like a large bird. But it's a dragon people! It may have a yellow snout, but it should not be confused as a beak. I mean it has fire spraying out its mouth. Birds don't spray fire! Haha. I had to drive him to and from school that day because it was too big for the bus. But everyone at school thought his dragon box was awesome!

GAS STOVE
We got the hearth built and had the new gas stove installed in the basement! The picture was taken before we got the mortar cleaned up off the hearth. It looks much better now. Haha. We are getting closer every day! We need to get some insulation up and put a few more boards in a couple of places and we'll be ready for sheet rock! 

TIME OUT FOR WOMEN

We FINALLY made it to TOFW this month! They cancelled on us the last 2 years because of COVID. It was fun to finally have girls weekend again!

SLEDDING

I didn't know if it was going to happen this year, but while I was at TOFW, Ty took the kids sledding! Other than Jay going head over feet at one point I think they all had a lot of fun! 

Before sledding they spent the morning working hard and switching rooms around. Jay and Lily have been sharing a room for 3 years because they are both afraid of the dark and don't like to sleep alone. But they are getting older and are changing and need their own space. Since the basement isn't quite ready yet, Crystal moved in with Lily, and Jay has his own room again. I think it's been a good move for everyone. Lily is trying out the top bunk for the first time ever so she got to make a small move as well. Haha.

SUNDAY

We looked over to see Lily eating a roll and noticed she had 2 very interested parties. She was barely even aware they were there even though one of them was literally on top of her. Haha. She just kept nonchalantly eating until there was only a bite left. Then Roscoe tried to remind her that other people wanted some, and she had to get more creative to eat the rest of it. Haha. When we got home from Grandma's I finally pulled the scissors out and cut the girls' hair. They'd been asking for a while and if you can tell in the picture with the dogs Lily's hair was VERY VERY long but it was also damaged and she was ready for a change. I took about 6 inches of both girls' heads! Crystal's hair wasn't quite as long as Lily's so 6 inches off of it left her hair to her shoulders. She has always liked her hair a little shorter. Long enough to pull back for soccer still though!!! Lily's hair is still long even after taking 6 inches off of it. I'm still getting used to how short Lily's hair is now, but it sure looks a lot healthier!

VOLLEYBALL

Lily's playing on a 6th grade volleyball team with 3 other girls in our neighborhood! Half the team literally lives on our street! Haha. It's been fun to see them grow and improve as they practice every week! We started practices twice a week now and our first tournament will be in April! They had just gotten their jerseys and immediately went and changed into them for a quick picture before we left practice! 

JANUARY 2022

 SUNSETS IN JANUARY

COVID

Well I woke up not feeling well at all one Monday morning in early January. I slept for about 3 days straight. Day 2 my throat hurt sooo bad. I took one look and knew it was strep. My throat started feeling tons better the next day after being on antibiotics for a 24 hrs but I was still so tired. Then Ty started to feel sick. Just to be safe, we managed to get a hold of at home Covid tests and sure enough they were positive. Ty isn't as good at sleeping all day as I am or I probably would have slept for 7 days straight. But with him at home it was too hard. Haha. 

Jay had the HARDEST time with me being sick. I didn't want him to get it so I wouldn't let him get close to me. He's such a cuddle bear though! Every night he comes and cuddles me before bed, and he didn't like that he couldn't do that. Especially since I wasn't feeling good, he just wanted to cuddle me and help me feel better. He was a big help though. He would get home from school and get me a cup a noodle and drink. He made sure I didn't starve to death. 

The pictures are him attempting to get closer to me despite me efforts. Because he refused to keep his distance, he ended up getting it too. He was barely sick though. So much so that I didn't actually tell him he was sick until he was better. Haha. They had cancelled school Friday and had no school Monday, so by the time school came again it had been 5 days and he was 100% better. 

Some weird symptoms I found this time around (this was Covid round 2 for me, the first time I didn't think it was covid till months later when everything started to smell and taste terrible). Lightheadedness. Even after I felt better and was back to work, I would get lightheaded out of the blue and would have to sit down. It seemed like a strange symptom. Jay had the same lingering symptom as did my coworker after she had it, so I know I'm not making it up. Haha. Brain Fog. This one is still lingering a bit. It does seem to get better as time goes on so there's hope that I get my already barely functioning normal brain back eventually. Tired. SO SO SO tired! This seemed to linger for a couple weeks. I'm doing much better now, but just thinking about how it felt makes me tired. Haha.

LILY'S ART (yes the bottom one has a footprint on it. It was left in the truck and got stomped on. haha)

CLEO AND ROSCOE

Cleo likes to park it in high traffic areas and makes no effort to move when she's in the way. Haha. It always makes me laugh. She parked it in the way of the door and laid there clearly feeling deeply depressed. And would look at you like it was a personal problem if you needed through the door. She wasn't moving. Haha. We are going to miss her now that her daddy is a nurse and not working with us anymore!

Roscoe made sure to take one for the team and slept next to me the ENTIRE time I was sick. He rarely left my side. Both he and the cat made sure I was warm and breathing while I was home alone sick in bed.