This week marks the second week Dylan was out of school. I took him back to the doctor on Monday, because he was still coughing, and because I needed another school excuse to keep from getting into trouble. They ran another COVID test, which still came back negative. I believe that Dylan was out of school for 2 weeks before Thanksgiving break, and then the whole week of break too! He ended up going back to the doctor a third time, and taking another COVID test. Which still came back negative. The Doc diagnosed RSV, but... didn't do the test because they are apparently only 50% effective.
Hubby went out of town for Wednesday and Thursday night. We had church activities on Wednesday. And I spoke with the attendance person at WSSES to make sure that Dylan could get his work, and that we wouldn't get in trouble for keeping him out. She said she appreciated it, because even if it wasn't COVID, coughing still spreads germs. Plus, I think she didn't want to worry about people freaking out every time Dylan coughed.
On Wednesday I also came home to find that I had left my bedroom door open. Know how I know? Pixie decided to make herself at home by bring several random socks and a cuddle toy to sleep on my bed with!
Friday was my last day of student teaching! :( Despite all the chaos, and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic... despite having the learn a new way of teaching on the fly (both online, and hybrid) and despite working at a school with some very disinterested kids, I learned a LOT. I was surprised to have been treated like an equal by my fellow science teachers, and would miss them quite a bit! And, one of the students arranged to have a little party for me. She made a banner and brought in food. She was a sweet girl, who had a difficult childhood, and I was touched that she cared enough about me to organize everything on her own. Thanks Bianca!
Also, on Friday, hubby's new TV arrived. He wanted to go bigger, and pass all the TV's down in the house. The old one from the family room went upstairs into our bedroom, and the bedroom TV came down to the pool table room. All we had to do was get it mounted and set it! And my, was it huge!!!
It was so big, that the box could hold a child!
And maybe a dog...
At first we were a little bit disappointed. We expected everything we watched to be super cool because it was a 4K TV! Come to find out, however, that not everything is recorded in 4K. So, watching hubby's old Saturday morning Westerns on the 4K TV didn't look any different. We did make ourselves feel better by watching some 4K YouTube videos on it, and that made us feel better. They looked pretty amazing. So it really just depends on what format the show/movie is recorded in.
We also got the official news (post via the FB page) that Kaitlyn was on the Varsity Track and Field team for the spring season. In actuality, she didn't really have a rest, because they went from XC to Indoor Track to Outdoor Track. But it was nice to see the official notice.
Friday is not where the week ends, but on Saturday we left to go on our Dude Ranch Vacation. That is a separate post (perhaps several) because it was so fun!
On Saturday, we had some work to do. Hubby decided to get a lift for his truck. To make it look meaner and more manly. He also needed new tires. So might as well make the tires bigger, which required a lift. Joe had been helping him on Friday, but wasn't available for the rest of the weekend. That meant he was stuck with us.
The kids are actually decent helpers, even if they are easily distracted.
And, because there was so much space between the older, smaller tires, and the truck, several of them took turns testing the space.
Jade came over that day as well to help me trim my bushes. We did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself! Check out the before and afters!
Hubby even got Jade to come under and help. She did do it, but she is a much more willing supervisor.
As you can tell by this picture I took of the helper's hands. Guess whose hands are the least dirty :)
Kari's hands were quite dirty from helping. But we noticed something from looking at them. It appears that she doesn't really have any fingerprints on her right hand. That is the hand she was most severely burned on. I guess it burnt the patterns off. I hope she doesn't go become a bad guy now!
What we had hoped would be an easy job turned out to take about 3 days. Even with helpers! Matt came over on the Sunday to try to help finish the job. Hubby needed his truck to get to work, and had an appointment to get new tires and alignment done the next day!
It was all hands on deck! As always, I am amazed and Dylan's curly legs.
And, Kari's butt could still fit in the toddler lawn chair!
Some of the pieces had to be modified to fit. You can turn down your volume for this noisy, sparky video too.
But we were able to get it done, and his truck looks pretty impressive now. Also, I almost have to jump to get into it. But that isn't the point!
This week, things slowed down a little bit. Only to be picked up in others.
On Monday, there was a track meeting after school. This is where they were talking about some things that pertained to varsity runners only. Kaitlyn and I waited after the meeting to talk with Coach Smith (I know! Co-inky-dink that we have the same last names!). We weren't sure how much of those things applied to Kaitlyn. Coach Smith said that all of them did. Kaitlyn was officially on the varsity team! We didn't know it! We thought she was just training with the team as kind of a probationary thing. We were super happy and proud for her.
Tuesday, I didn't have my SPED class. It was nice to have a little break. Wednesday, nobody had school because it was Veteran's day. It was strange to do it in the middle of the week, but I wasn't too upset about it.
Thursday, morning, I got a notification from YouTube that they had put an age restriction on my video. It made no sense for at least 2 reasons! One, it was an unlisted video. Therefore, no one can get to it unless they have the direct link. In fact, I only upload them to YouTube because it makes posting them on the blog easier. So, no one should have had the link to watch the video (and hence, report it) unless I gave it to them, or unless they came across it in my blog, which is also unlisted. Secondly, the video in question didn't have any swear words, it didn't have any scandalous body parts, it didn't have any swear words. It didn't have anything that I could think of that would be offensive to anyone! It was a video of something blowing up from hubby's hog hunting trip the previous fall. So I had no idea how it got flagged or who did it. Still don't. Unless it was some random screening. I appealed the decision, giving the above as evidence, and thankfully received this notification back later in the day.
On Thursday, we also made an appointment for Dylan at the Pediatric Clinic. He had been coughing for a day or two, and it wasn't getting better. What with the global crisis and pandemic and all, we had kept him home from school for a day, but knew that we couldn't send him back still coughing. The cough was getting worse, and I knew we would need a doctors note to excuse him from school anyway. So we went... He was tested for COVID, but it came back negative (thank goodness). They did, however, give him a breathing treatment to see if that could help calm down the cough. And an inhaler to use at home. They also gave him an excuse for the previous 2 days, and the next day, to help him get better. The breathing treatment, apparently, caused him to feel pretty good. I am not sure if it was the drugs themselves, or the relief of not having to cough. But he looked pretty relaxed.
He was so "relaxed" that he sang to himself in the car. Towards the end, he notices that I am recording, and starts to play it up a big. But he was clearly feeling pretty good. Sorry for the video quality. It was dark in the car, and I wasn't really trying to video him, just get the audio.
Friday, Joe took off some time from work to help hubby work on installing a lift kit on his truck. We were all planning on going out that evening to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, the truck took longer to do than hubby thought it would (isn't that always the way?!?). They broke a few tools, and had to go get some others to replace them and finish the job. And there may or may not have been some dream tools purchased because... why not? And I was working late at school getting some planning done. Amanda, Jade and I had been Marco Poloing about the plans during the day, but I couldn't watch them all that well because... ya know... students. After school, hubby texted and told me that I needed to get home ASAP because we were going to be late for our reservations. So, I left pretty much as soon as I got the message to head home. Unfortunately, Amanda, who had planned the whole evening was pretty frustrated with some things (I am not 100% sure what all it included) and decided that we would have a better time if she went home. We were sad she wasn't with us, but the reservation had been paid for already, so... we went. That night, we went out to Fuji for dinner.
And Ax throwing. We did miss Amanda, especially because most of us felt pretty clueless to what led to her level of frustration.
But we did get a few good throws in still.
We had decent luck with the hatchets. And we even threw some of the full size axes. And, hubby, of course, tried a few different throwing techniques as well.
Saturday and Sunday we spent time working on hubby's truck lift (separate post).
And Saturday, Kaitlyn went with the rest of varsity to compete in the State Competition. Again, she did really well for only having run 1 other 5K. And it was state! All of the best people from around were there!
At church on Sunday, the youth hung out for a few minutes after church, just to visit. And there was a YW broadcast that evening to celebrate 150th Anniversary of the program being organized.
And, we'll end on a funny for the week. The news was pretty sensationalized during the pandemic. And everything was out to kill us. Clearly we have survived, and things are slowing going back to the way they were. But this is what it felt like sometimes.
Baby shark was a baby song that became virally popular. It is one of those annoying songs that gets stuck in your head, and you can't get it out!
Also, I took this picture of the old table in the middle of the entry way. It was no longer needed in the "school" room. And someone had bought it off CraigsList and were coming to get it that weekend. So, I wanted one last memory of it before it went away!
The Ashcrafts were still in town for the beginning of this week. Unfortunately, it wasn't as fun for, well, anyone really because the kids and I still had school. So, while we were at school, Diana was homeschooling her kids (as she had done all year), just from our home! And the kids could play with each other when they got home.
Tuesday, the kids didn't have school because it was a teacher workday. So they stayed home to play with the Ashcrafts. MCSD, however, did not have the day off, so I still had to go in. It was also VOTING day! Mrs. Jones had first block planning, so we both planned to go vote first thing in the morning. Hubby and I got to our polling place pretty early. But, not early enough. We had to park way in the back on the grass. And the line was crazy! We chatted quite a bit with the lady in front of us, until they called for 65+ older people to go vote and not have to wait in line. At one point, I sent this video to my mentor teacher Mrs. Jones. It was becoming very clear that I would not be on time for second block.
Hubby and I were able to vote! And then split up. I went to school and he flew out of town. Here is our cute voting selfie... with masks :(
Waiting for the results was not fun! It felt like quite a bit was riding on it.
And, as the results started to trickle in, I was a bit confused based on some of the infographics I saw. It is what it is, and I have to have faith in the system, regardless of how it turned out. I didn't love Trump... to be honest, I thought he acted like a petulant child. But I like to keep the money that I worked hard to earn for myself and my family.
Tuesday night was our last "family" dinner with the Ashcrafts. They were leaving the following morning. The big girls were being a bit of a pain while I tried to get a good picture of them.
Which lead to this picture. I'm not sure how happy I am that they obviously enjoy being a pain my my tookus.
The younger kids followed suit.
And a good time was had by all, even though I didn't get a good picture of it!
Wednesday was church activities. Everyone was a bit down after the Ashcrafts left. I always love when they come to visit. But the letdown after they leave is freaking HARD!
Thursday was pretty busy! The morning started early with another Science Dept meeting. Then went straight to Student Teaching Seminar right after.
That day was also sectionals for the XC Varsity runners! This included Kaitlyn! She had only been able to train with the varsity girls for about 1 week (maybe 2... I can't remember). We had to remind her that it was her first 5K, and that, as a beginner, she shouldn't expect herself to be perfect. But, I know that is easier said than done. It is difficult to go from being in the top 10 to.... not. That being said, however, I actually think she did really freaking good! First 5K race ever, placing 20th at sectionals?!?! Rock on!
That day, I also got the chocolate I had bought from Abel's school fundraiser. They were delicious!
Friday night there was some cute cuddling going on.
And Sunday I felt like Kelsey was a bit clingy. I took this picture during sacrament meeting. Not the most reverent, I know. But it illustrates just how closely Kelsey was sitting next to me. These were chairs, not benches, and there should have been a gap between the chairs that Kelsey is bridging over. *Sigh*.
Kaitlyn is notorious for stealing phones. And then taking goofy selfies. So... I figure I should display them somewhere! This is, by no means, an exhaustive compellation. It is mostly pictures from Kari's phone. I haven't even begun to tackle the ones on my phone.
I present to you, the many faces of Kaitlyn.
Less frequently, she takes silly videos.
This one... This one made me laugh until my sides hurt. Make me have a laugh attack. I watched it over and over again! I don't know why, but that random "mew" at the end just did me in.
There is a Facebook page for all the parents of the Cross Country and Track students. The parents often time post pictures of their child and others. I went on at the end of last season, and downloaded all the ones with Kaitlyn in them. So, similar to Kari's band photo dump, this is one of Kaitlyn. Many much pictures of her running!
Lining up at the starting line, getting ready to push the start button on her watch.
This is Kaitlyn and Trace. Trace is from our ward. Both of his older sisters run track/cross country also.
This is Kaitlyn and Nolan. Their times were so similar, that they often switched off who won each race. Here they seem to be running up a hill.
Again, in cross county, the people who watch do a fair amount of walking between viewing places as well. That is Kaitlyn, leading the pack at the moment, on the far right.
On her way into the finish line!
Go Kaitlyn go! You've got this! Just a little more to finish it!
That is Coach Peters. He coaches the boys, but he is familiar with the girls as well. And will do his best to push them whenever they run by.
Some of the scenery is quite pretty!
Before the meets, the girls would say a prayer. I am pretty sure Kaitlyn appreciated it.
Then they would hands in to pump each other up a bit!
At the end of Kaitlyn's 8th grade year, after consistently finishing in the top 10 and being the 1st Smiths Station girl, the varsity coach invited Kaitlyn to practice with them. We didn't know it at the time, but that was basically Kaitlyn's promotion to Varsity!! She was promoted just in time for the varsity girls to go to sectionals!
Congratulations on a great season Kaitlyn! You worked hard and you improved a ton! There is more work to be done, but you are doing a great job!
Mommy and Daddy married in '02. Kari is in 10th grade (how do I have a high schooler?!?), Kaitlyn is in 8th, Dylan is in 6th (what?!?). And my baby, Kelsey, is in 3rd grade. Where does the time go? Mommy went back to school when she finally had some time to herself. And she is *this* close to finishing her bachelors! One. More. Semester!!! Welcome to our "normal"!
