The Weekend and Day 106

Saturday, we had a break from baseball so we packed all of the humans and the dogs into Glenn's truck and headed to Guernsey, a small town about an hour and half from Cheyenne. I've driven through it many times for work but I'd never stopped at the reservoir. The kids were excited to swim so that's where we headed first.   

I posted this picture on instagram with the caption "who are these giant kids following me around?"  But seriously, who are they?  It's like actual teenville around here.  

I tried to work on my action photos and got this blurry gem of Reina jumping in.  Now I just need to work on focus.  

Trigger had a best day ever.  He loves water and retrieving stuff out of the water, swimming after kids in the water, etc.  I have a picture of Charlie on my phone who was not having his best day.  Not a fan of the water but we got him to swim a few times.  

Hubba.

After the kids swam for a few hours, we headed over to Register Cliff and then drove a few miles to see the Oregon Trail wagon ruts that are carved in the sandstone.  It's pretty amazing to think about traveling across that country in a wagon while we are cranking the air conditioning and drinking a root beer float.  

It was a nice Saturday.  It felt nice to get out of the house and out of town, even for just a few hours. 

Day 103

Oh hail no.  

Our Friday afternoon was buzzing along.  Reina was finishing up her week of online art class (so much fun that I signed her up for two more sessions), I was getting work done, Glenn was getting work done, Will was doing who-knows-what and the skies darkened and giant balls of ice fell from the sky.  Okay, so maybe that's slight hyperbole but the hail was big.  Right as it started, I made a mad dash outside to cover my tomato plants with laundry baskets and I got pelted a few times and man it stung.  We stood in the house to watch the storm pass over but it hailed and hailed and hailed.  The size was anywhere from pea to slightly small golf ball but it was relentless.  Somewhere in our county, someone gets a storm like this every summer and I guess it was our turn.  The garden is shredded.  The laundry baskets have holes in them and the tomatoes are no more.  Some of the garden was protected by hail guards but one of those collapsed under the weight of the hail.  The new camper is dented.  But all of those can be fixed, replaced or composted for next year's garden.  We may have to do more shopping at the farmer's market but but with everything that's going on in the world right now, this ain't nothing.  (For the record, these were not the exact words I was saying a few hours ago while I was sobbing (SOBBING) about little baby beets but what can I say, I'm growing.) 

So that rounds out our week.  Will had two nights of baseball and his team went 2-0 the first night and 0-2 the second.  Reina loved her art class.  Glenn and I both had trips to the office but still not plan to go back full time.  Tomorrow we are doing some yard work and then piling everyone into the truck to go to a lake for the afternoon.  Picnics and swimming are just what we need.  

COVID update.  Wyoming's case numbers are up to 1368 but about 1000 of those people have recovered.  That's good  news but unfortunately the numbers keep climbing.  I just read that we might have some new health orders on Monday.  Wear those masks people!  

Day 99

I have to remember to post tomorrow for Day 100.  ONE HUNDRED.  But that's tomorrow's post.

So it's another Monday.  We had a nice weekend.  It rained on Friday so when it got dark, I took Reina outside to show her all of the nightcrawlers that come out in our yard.  I stumbled across this phenomenon last summer when I'd go lock up the chicken coop and freak out by all the slimy things in the grass running away from my flashlight.  Anyway, Glenn decided that we should collect some and put them in our garden.  So we spent about 30 minutes trying to find big worms and catch them.  We are party people! 

Will played three baseball games on Saturday - his team went 1-2 but Will played well and we had fun watching.  It's nice getting to know the other parents and the weather was perfect.  During a break between games, Reina and I masked up and shopped downtown for a little while. 

Yesterday Glenn took the kids to see the Pauley grandparents for the afternoon and I got a few hours in the house by myself.  It was magnificent!  I missed everyone after the first hour but I enjoyed just puttering around the house and watching chick flicks.  Before they left, Glenn and I installed new light fixtures in the basement.  We are getting close to running out of things to replace in the house - things that are within our skillset at least. 

So that was our weekend.  Reina is taking an online art class this week in the afternoons and she had a lot of fun with today's session.  Will has two nights of baseball doubleheaders and Glenn and I both have plenty of work projects.  Bring on the week! 

Day 95

We have almost made it to the end of another week.  Not much has changed.  Glenn and I are still working from home for the foreseeable future.  Reina had her friend Dylan over today and they had so much fun that I'm trying to figure out how he can stay the whole summer.  A busy Reina makes for a happy Reina.  Will had baseball practice tonight.  He has three games this Saturday, the first one starts at 8:00 a.m.  Gulp!  He had a double header on Tuesday and it's so much fun to watch him play.  He walked a bunch but drove in a run on a Sac Fly and made some outs playing third.  We are getting to know some of the other baseball parents and that makes it more fun for us too. 

Let's see, what other details from the week are possibly worth memorializing?  I made Reina some curtains!  The mask team is taking a break while we see how supplies are looking so I'm working on some other projects.  Reina searched online for some Harry Potter fabric and after a few 'sorry out-of-stock' messages, we finally found some that she liked and I whipped them into curtains last night. I can't say that the seams are perfectly straight but they look like curtains and they replaced the Frozen curtains she's had in there for many years.  Next I have to put straps on a goose decoy bag that I made for Glenn.  Yes, a giant tote to hold goose decoys. 

Wyoming's COVID-19 case numbers are now 906 confirmed and 238 probable.  Case numbers have climbed this week, compared to previous weeks.  Vicky had to get tested today because she's having another surgery next week.  She said the test was more painful than she thought and not something that she plans on repeating.  Painful nose swabs seems like a good way to wrap up another post in this strange time. 

Day 92

Another Monday!  Glenn and I are still working from home.  The weather started off cooler than expected and hazy because of the fires burning in the West (not a good sign for so early in the summer!).  I had to go to the office for a few hours this morning.  The budget news for state government continues to be scary, but just like everything else in this time, we are taking it day by day!

Reina got to spend the afternoon with Grandma Hansen and they had lunch in the park, played with water colors and went to TJ Maxx (naturally).  Will had batting practice tonight so I took him and Charlie and I walked while he practiced.  After that, Glenn finished putting up the towel racks in the bathroom goodness this post is excruciatingly boring. We painted the bathroom this weekend!  When I think about all of the house projects we've finished up during this quarantine time, it's pretty amazing.  And there are still more to tackle.

I got to see Coco use her cat tent as a hamster wheel to chase another cat out of the yard tonight.  Now the moths are brazenly landing on me while I try to type.  So gross.  I think even the cats are tired of catching and eating them because there are soooo many this year.  So many. 

I thought of my daily silver lining earlier today but now I've forgotten it.  Reina and I are reading The Ickabog every night, was that it?  Will and I are going through a 'pun' phase where we send each other texts and memes and include Pop-Pop because he's always up for a good pun.  Oh I know what it was!  Glenn has a thing for true crime murder shows and I do too!  I always knew that I did but his is a new appreciation that he discovered while exercising in the basement over the lunch hour.  He finds random channels on our cable and while they sometimes veer towards the gruesome (mob killings, etc.), today's was just a good old fashioned marital murder.  We both watched for a while but he had to go back to work before the murderer was revealed.  It was the wife, duh. 

So there you go.  A bit weird to end on spousal homicide but it's a Monday.  Oh wait, let's end on Will's report card.  It arrived today and he was two percentage points away from all A's for the year!  He ended up with an 89 in Spanish and an 89 in Honor's World Geography.  He had all A's for the second semester and we are really proud of him for making a commitment to his academics.  Bring on 8th grade!

Day 89

It's been a busy week and most nights I've been too tired to blog about it.  Okay, one night I got super busy watching old murder mysteries on tv....  Let's see - we had crazy cold weather earlier in the week.  Laramie received 8 inches of snow but we didn't get anything beyond a little bit of hail.  It did come pretty close to freezing so we had  cover up all of our plants but it looks like everything survived.  

Will had a baseball scrimmage last night and he came within about 3 feet of hitting an actual over-the-fence homerun.  It was so exciting!  He really smacked the ball.  Next time, that sucker is going over the fence.  He has a double header today and it'll be fun to sit in the warm weather and watch some baseball. 

Reina has been hiking with Aunt Vicky twice this week and had a playdate too.  She and I are reading The Ickabog together at night and I'd say her first week of summer vacation has been pretty good.  She's misplaced her cell phone in our house, which doesn't speak highly of the cleanliness situation but we are making it our mission to track it down this weekend.  (I just zipped through her room and filled up a bag for the trash can while she was hiking shhhhhhhh..... don't say anything!) 

Glenn and I finished up the bathrooms this week.  Just like with all projects, we still need a few finishing touches like towel bars but the project is done!  Okay, we are also waiting on the shower door so we are four sharing the shower in our bathroom but the rest of it is done!  

I'm taking the afternoon off to chauffeur Will to baseball and get my game face on.  Let's bring on the weekend!  

Day 85

Day 85 was another Monday, but at least this time there was no kid schoolwork involved.  I'm working on a project to collect resources for people who are very stressed and even suicidal so my work life has been a little heavy lately.  I did have kids coming in from time to time to ask about snacks, lunch options, how much more electronic time they had and hey-mom-check-out-this-dance-I-just-made so those were nice diversions. 

Will is digging school being out and he finds ways to stay occupied during the day (watching old sports highlights, reading about sports, looking up statistics about sports and practicing sports in the backyard.)  Reina is a little tougher. Once she ran out of electronic time today, she was as the kids say "all up in my business" or my little 'butt barnacle' as I fondly refer to her during quarantine.  I suggested art projects, reading, cleaning her room (oh mom, you are so funny) and she finally agreed to spending some time playing with my make-up and drawing.  I'll sacrifice a few eyeliner pencils if it means I get 30 minutes of total silence.  She spent her time drawing the character Cher from Clueless, a bonafide teen movie that she watched with her big cousin last week.  Since Clueless is in fact based on the Jane Austen book Emma and it's also one of my favorite 90's movies, this is a project that I can fully support.    

We had a good old fashioned busy (but lovely) weekend.  We got to watch Will play his first baseball games. He had some good hits and drove in a few runs.  When he was playing third, he had a liner glance off his glove and bonk his head but he bounced back up and stayed in the game.  I did not run on to the field after he hit the ground and I'm not sure he fully appreciates my restraint.  I did ask Glenn and the other people around us "did that hit his head" about 50 times but he's fine. The coaches and umps checked him out thoroughly and while he didn't appreciate me gazing at his pupils the rest of the day, he felt fine.  At the ballpark, ti was fun to watch some games with the grandparents in attendance and little cousins running around.  It felt like summer - especially when the weather went from chilly, to sunscreen, back to chilly and get out the umbrella.  Oh Wyoming.  (It's 37 degrees as I type this and so far we've had rain and hail tonight.  There's snow on the summit but let's hope it stays there.) 

Reina is back at dance class a few days a week, with social distancing and mask wearing.  She had a class on Saturday morning and then she played with the cousins during baseball. In the afternoon, she went to a little birthday for our neighbor's granddaughter.  She and Reina play about once a week and on Saturday, the other grandkids were there too so Reina had a gang of girls to run around the backyard with, it was good for her mental health and they all get along well.  

One of our on-going projects lately has been to paint the vanities in the kids' bathrooms.  We spent a big chunk of Sunday getting that done and hanging up new light fixtures.  I'm happy to report that Glenn and I did that (it was mostly Glenn) without arguing or electrocuting anything.  Victories! 

Besides tonight's hail, this has been a good start to another week.  

Day 81

The first official day of summer!  I'm sitting here at our messy dining room table.  I can see three laptops, work-related magazines, pieces of paper covered in fractions, markers, a stapler, masking tape (for the bathroom project naturally) and a plastic box filled with crayons, index cards and more mechanical pencils than any family should own.  Maybe later tonight, I'll clear off the school stuff and try to open up some space so that people can actually eat a meal here.  Who are we kidding, this table will look like this until I'm shoveling everything into a tote right before people come over for dinner.  I'm happy that school is wrapped up, but I think I might miss sitting side-by-side working on projects and practicing spanish, reading math word problems (if Jennie starts off with 13 apples and 15 oranges...) and helping write poems.  What I won't miss?  All of the cajoling and following-ups and you-have-a-zoom-call-in-3-minutes-please-change-out-of-your-pajamas-and-why-are-you-still-in-bed?!   But we made it through to the end of the school year and that is definitely something to celebrate.

Yesterday, I took the afternoon off and the kids and Cousin Alena drove west in search of someplace for Will to swim.  That was his only request - a lake to swim in. Oh and some m&m's to eat on the way.  All of the lakes I had in mind had a pesky 'no swimming/no dogs' policy so we ended up hiking in search of a creek big enough to wade in.  Just as we found a good spot, the rain started.  It poured and poured.  Luckily it was warm enough that we mostly just laughed as we hiked/ran/slogged back to the car.  The car ride home was a intoxicating mixture of wet dog and human but the kids were pretty good-natured about all of it.  I hope the rest of our summer goes a little more according-to-plan but I'll take as much of the laughing and shrieking (when the rain got a little cold) as I can get. 

I'm off to pick up Will from baseball practice.  Glenn is fishing with a friend tonight. On my way to baseball, I'm picking up Arby's for dinner.  It doesn't get much more summery than that.

Last Day of School

After 80 days (or so) of this homeschooling adventure, we made it.  It's officially the last day of fifth grade and seventh grade.  They are practically feral but we all survived.  They both have good grades and much appreciated senses of humor.  Bring on the summer.