Mother's Day and Last Weekend and some stuff in between

As I type this, we are under another winter storm advisory.  Depending on how it all sketches out, we could get as much as 4-8 inches of snow tomorrow.  So that's fun. We need the moisture yes yes yes but man, I'm ready for springtime.  This time last weekend I was in Arizona with Vicky and some friends!  I got an airplane!  I got to see my folks and their cute house in Sun City!  I didn't have to make meals for anyone!  It was a delight.  We were supposed to go on the trip last May but Covid happened so we were luckily able to postpone our reservation for this year.  We stayed at the Civana resort outside of Phoenix and we hiked and took yoga classes and other classes that shoved Lucy way outside of her comfort zone.  We also ate beet hummus and cashew cheese (not Lucy) and just had a great time.  

The natural area inside of our resort.  Lots of cacti and cute little quail and bunny rabbits.  

With Vicky on our first hike.  It was warm but there was a surprising amount of shade.  Plus our hike leader took a leisurely pace and we were able to keep up.  Hike #2 had slightly cooler weather but the leader set what Vicky and I called "race pace."  Great workout however.   

It's a picture of the Bronco Baby Mom!  

While I was gone, Glenn held down the fort.  Will ended up getting tested for Covid right before I left but he tested negative also.  So far, for the four of us, we have been tested 5 times.  Will reports that this test was worse than his test back in September.  So Will recovered but the baseball games were rained out.  Rain!  Reina testified before the school board (over Zoom) in support of kids wearing masks until the end of the school year.  She is passionate about that topic - until kids can get vaccinated.  She did a great job, she sounded very organized and confident and I was able to listen in from Az.  

Today is Mother's Day.  We bought a new faucet for the kitchen sink a few weeks ago and it's so cool that I said it should be my present.  How middle-aged is that last sentence?  Anyway, Reina wrote me a nice note, Will said he has a nice note coming and Glenn made me take a nap.  As I stood between my two kiddos at church today (we went to in-person church!) and listened to them recite the Lord's Prayer, I thought that I have everything I need for Mother's Day.  

I was back in the office this week. It wasn't too bad. I missed my sweats but I'll adjust just like a did a year ago.  

Day 1

All weekend, I've had the thought that I need to memorialize this time.  This Covid-19 time.  The change in attitudes and plans from last Sunday to tonight is a little scary but I also firmly believe that we (as a society) need to do everything we can to prevent the spread of this virus.  But this blog doesn't need a diatribe from me about how people aren't taking this seriously enough.  This blog needs the weird little details of how all of the Bronco Babies are dealing with this uncertain time in our history. So let's talk about that.

Reina has been talking about the coronavirus for a few weeks now.  Coming from a long-line of worriers and worst-case-scenario-people, Reina and I have talked a lot. As the situation has progressed, I've told her as much as I've known at the time without adding to her fears and we've talked about we can do specifically, mainly washing hands and keeping ourselves healthy. When Wyoming's first case was announced last week, we talked about that.

Mr. Junior High would talk a little bit about it but *stuff* got real for Will on Wednesday night when he and I were watching basketball on tv, flipping back and forth between college and NBA games.  We had the Nuggets game on and watched in real time as the NBA made the announcement to suspend the season and pulled players off of the court in Utah.  I had to suppress a giggle as I watched the realization dawn on Will and he turned to me and said "I might actually not have school!"  Welcome to the conversation son.

We kept ourselves pretty isolated this weekend because Glenn has been feeling under the weather and we had a icy snowstorm that blew through that canceled outdoor baseball practice.  Our church canceled services and other than a trip to the library and the grocery store, we laid low.  Today the sun came out so we all got outside for a little bit. This afternoon, I read an email from the junior high detailing how they were going to limit the number of students in the cafeteria, took a nap, and then woke up to the news that all schools in our district are canceled until at least April 7.  Both kids were shocked and obviously not completely disappointed, although they are both worried about what it means for the summer and missing their friends.  They are also super excited about my plans to keep them learning during this time.  Okay fine, Reina is pretty excited to be "home-schooled" but Will doesn't think there are any online resources that accurately reflect what he's learning right now.  Because you know, the internet is bereft of 7th-grade math, science, social studies, English and Spanish exercises.  Is my sarcasm coming through loud and clear?

Glenn and I have to go to work tomorrow morning.  We don't know what official plan will be for our agencies but for now, it's business as usual.  Stay tuned for Day 2.

Post-Holiday weekend

I'm at the stage of Christmas break where I'm not quite sure what day of the week it is but I do get to sort-of sleep in tomorrow because I'm taking the day off and that's all I know.  Oh and Wyoming plays in a bowl game tomorrow so it must be Monday.  Reina asked me how many more days of vacation she had left and she still has six.  SIX DAYS! 

Our weekend was a hodgepodge of fun activities and chores and winter-y weather.  On Saturday, Glenn went duck hunting, Will had batting practice and I baked a bunch of cookies for church.  The weather was frightful so it was a nice day to stay in.  Reina beat me in several games of Trouble - her new favorite. 

On Sunday, the weather cleared up a little bit and Will and I headed down to Denver for the last Broncos game of the season.  We (mostly) took Glenn's advice and bundled up in snowpants and carhartts so we stayed warm.  Will decided to forego his snowboots and his feet got pretty cold.  He's going to love that memorialized that little tidbit on the blog.  The Broncos won, we had fun. 

Obligatory mom/son selfie

 Today, we made hamburger out of the moose, elk and antelope that Glenn and Will shot this hunting season.  It was a long day of meat grinding but we got it all done.  It's nice to start the new year off with a freezer full of meat ready for dinner. 

Glenn had a little stalker checking out his handiwork.  

Camera pictures from Alaska

I'm trying to write as many posts as I did in 2018 and I only have a few more days to hit my goal. I was looking through some of the posts that I started to write this year and never finished and discovered all of these Alaska pictures. I'd made a photo book for the Pauley grandparents to thank them for the trip and I guess I never got around to blogging about it.  So here are some of the highlights for blog posterity.

We left Seattle on a Sunday afternoon and cruised all day Monday.  The weather was usually in the low 60's or upper 50's and it felt great to us after a hot July in Cheyenne. While on the ship we spent a lot of time watching for whales and we got to see so many!  It was really cool.  

Glenn whale watching and Reina modeling.

It wasn't quite 60 degrees the morning that Will and I sat on the deck and read books and watched for whales.  Glad we had our cold weather gear! 

I took many photos with my Canon but these are the phone camera versions.  Our first stop was in Juneau where we had most of the day to explore Alaska's capitol.  We found a small city museum that had a little area for kids to explore and they loved it, even the tween.

Will pretending to process fish - he even put on the apron.  Well, he was using the fish as a weapon to cut other fish but he was having fun.  

Sun setting as we left Juneau

It looks like these are all of the camera pics that I saved.  We also visited Ketchikan, Sitka, Victoria BC and I feel like there's someplace else that I'm forgetting.  It was a terrific opportunity to see such a beautiful part of our planet and spend lots of quality time with family. 

While just about everybody else on the ship was viewing the Hubbard Glacier, these two monsters were swimming.  Yes the pool was heated but the air was not warm.  They didn't care.  

Football and Student Council

A few Saturdays ago, Will got to travel on the bus for his first out-of-town junior high football game.  He had to be dropped off at the bus at 6 a.m. and the rest of us followed in the car an hour later.  We drove to Scottsbluff for a sunny and hot morning game. 

I took this picture to capture how big the Scottsbluff players were.  Will is the in the black helmet across the line from the giant kid second from the right.  He held his own!  

#54 getting ready for the kick-off 

The whole team getting ready for the start of the game

The offensive line taking the field.  

This is how Will's team does the offensive huddle.  Will's kneeling on the front line. 

Look who agreed to take a picture with his mom!

and his dad!  

The game had a crazy finish.  The score was tied 6-6 when McCormick got the ball back with about 45 seconds left.  They had decent field position but nobody kicks field goals at this level so they'd need a touchdown to win.  None of us parents knew if there was overtime or not.  Will's team moved the ball down to about the 20 with 6 seconds left.  Then the quarterback snapped the ball, Will blocked a pass rusher and the qb threw to the end zone where the receiver caught the ball for a game-winning touchdown.  It should be noted that the receiver caught the ball because his mom (sitting behind me) yelled for him to catch it.  All of us parents were screaming like they'd just won the Super Bowl, it was a lot of fun.

In non-football news, Reina got elected to Student Council!  We are so proud of her!  A few weeks ago, she decided that she wanted to run.  She had to write a three minute speech which she practiced several times at home.  Last Thursday, she got up in front of all of the third, fourth, fifth and sixth graders and gave her speech along with 15 other fifth and sixth grade candidates.  I snuck in and watched her speech and she did an awesome job. She spoke clearly, told a few jokes that made everyone laugh and vowed to bring back the maze to the Halloween carnival.  She found out that she was one of the four fifth-graders voted in on Friday.

Football and public service at the Pauley household right now. 

Pioneer Girl

I have several posts sitting in the drafts folder but haven't had time to tackle the multitude of events that are happening in these last few weeks of May so I decided to post little snippets of our month before summer is here.  Reina's class was supposed to go on a field trip last week but it was canceled because of snow.  That's right - too much snow!  So they moved the Pioneer Days celebration to school and I volunteered to help with the trading post. 

My pioneer girl in full costume.  For comparison's sake, on this day in his fourth grade, Will agreed to wear jeans and a nike shirt.  

The students had a variety of pioneer themed activities besides the trading post.  They did a craft, ate biscuits and gravy, learned how to square dance, played pioneer games and learned how to rope.  It was a lot of fun watching all of the activities. At the trading post, the kids could use buttons they had earned in class to barter for old fashioned candy, pickles, cards and giant wooden flutes. I asked the teacher if she was mad at us parents.  She was happy to tell me that there were enough flutes for all of the kids in both classes.  

Reina brought me a thank-you note home on Friday.  

Dear Mom, Thank you so much for helping with are "feild trip."  You were the greatest bag hander ever! You should get a job were you just hand out bags! I hope your ready for when the flute comes home, I am planning on having a concert!  P.S. Prepare to be smashed in Slap Jack!  Sincerely, Reina  

The morning that Reina was getting ready, she decided that Coco needed to get dressed for Pioneer Days too.  As you can tell, she's really excited. I didn't realize it until I posted this picture, but our new cat to be named later is sitting outside.  She's not an outside cat but more on her later.  

What happened to April?

One little blog post in April?  Lucy, what is your problem?  Well, in my defense it's been a hectic but fun month.  We've had lots of weekend activities and practices at night.  Aunt Vicky has been pushing through her last month of chemo and needed some extra help with the little cousins now and then.  Glenn's been super busy at work and I've had a few out of town trips to add to the fun. We packed a lot into April and I'll do my best to adequately recap it. 

The weekend before his actual birthday, we celebrated Glenn's 50th with a party.  It was a fun chance to bring friends together, celebrate the greatest guy I know and have a lot of fun.  We kept the menu simple and invited a lot of people.  We had kids of all ages and friends from all corners of our lives and it was a really special evening.  Glenn was touched by all of the attention and I think it was a great way to kick off his next decade. 

Little cousins super interested in the birthday pie... more on this to come.  

Singing happy birthday.  As part of the decorations - well really the only decorations, I hung up pictures of Glenn from his teens, twenties and thirties.  Many of our friends have only known him in the last decade so it was fun to see college aged Glenn ... he was into body-building.  Hubba hubba.

The whole family getting ready to sing and a photobomb from a cutie.  

 So we all sang happy birthday, Glenn blushed, leaned down to blow out the candles on his blueberry birthday pie and saw that somebody blonde and little had beaten him to it.  Toddler Cousin politely waited until "Happy Birthday" was finished and blew out the candles for Uncle Glenn.  I giggled for the rest of the weekend thinking about it. 

The little helper and big sister.  

 The next weekend was Easter and the weather mostly cooperated.  We got up early to help with the breakfast at church and came home for an Easter Egg hunt after lunch. 

Glenn barking egg hunt orders or something like that.  

Reina being engulfed by a pine tree.  

The kid who at first said he didn't need an egg hunt this year and then luckily changed his mind.  Tweens, am I right? 

Just casually eating candy, looking for eggs, looking cool.  

Someone in the family still takes her egg hunting very seriously.  

She didn't get to participate in the hunt but she was a very interested observer.  We've had crazy weather - 70 one day and 7 inches of snow the next.  Coco likes her time in the cat tent.  

Summer is right around the corner.

Back to the chain gang

We are back in the swing of things, mostly, from a great holiday break.  This is our first full week back and man am I feeling it on this Wednesday night.  We had a nice little weekend.  We zipped down to Colorado for some shopping on Saturday and used the giftcards I received for Christmas and my birthday on new clothes and some cute shoes.  Reina was pretty helpful - pointing out when a shirt looked like something a doctor (in surgery) would wear and when something else made my bottom look weird.  This is the kind of feedback I definitely need.  Will and Glenn came with us and shoe shopped and Grandma Hansen helped wrangle kids and shoes.  When we came home, Will had a bad cold and a fever so we had to stay away from Vicky's house and kiddos so we didn't spread germs for the rest of the weekend. 

I had a lovely birthday last week. I got the chance to go with Vicky to chemo and we actually had a fun time.  I can say that because I didn't have to deal with all of that yucky medicine.  I helped her pick out some wigs and we had a few giggles.  She was the spitting image of our mom circa 1989 in one of the wigs.  The cancer center is a beautiful facility and the staff does a great job of keeping a cheerful attitude, even though the patients are all facing tough battles.  We looked at seed catalogs and picked out plants for the spring.  We also talked about canning and looked at new recipes to try this summer.  Time sped by (for me!) and before I knew it, it was time to drive her home. 

The morning of my birthday, the kids and Glenn gave me my presents.  Reina picked out some jewelry featuring the letter L, Glenn gave me a generous giftcard and Will had ordered some Nike running tights that came in the mail yesterday.  I am all set to tackle my forty-something year. 

This month, Will has school and city basketball leagues.  Reina is back at dance classes and piano lessons.  Will has a couple of confirmation classes.  Glenn has to keep an eye on legislative action for his agency.  My work schedule isn't too bad but who knows what's around the corner.  We have some family coming to visit at different times this month and a lot to look forward.  Let's go January!

A bunch of pictures of Will playing football at UW

Last weekend, Will had the chance to play on the city's all-star tackle football team.  The team was comprised of a few players from each regular season team, there were about 20 kids all together. They practiced for two weeks and then played a few teams from across the state/region last weekend in Laramie.  Will's team's first game was on Friday night and they played under the lights on UW's field.  What a cool opportunity! Glenn and I both took a bunch of pictures and it was hard to whittle them down to a reasonable number to put on the blog but here we go.  

Will is #23 and getting ready for the kick-off.  

On defense. 

Lined up and getting ready for a tackle.  Will helped make a goal line stand.  

Will is the second player from the right with black socks.  

Getting the defensive play from the coach.  

He obliged me with a post-game picture on the field.  

On Sunday, the temperatures warmed up and Will's team played in the sun against a team from Billings. 

Will played on the defensive line during this game.  Here he's lining up to play nose guard.  

Getting ready for another kickoff - Will is at the front of the line.  

Looking serious at halftime. 

Post-game team picture at mid-field.  

#23 with his biggest fan

No wait, this is his biggest fan.  

Will and his teammates from his regular season team.  

Will and his Grandpa Pauley who traveled up from Colorado with Grandma Pauley to watch him play.  

Elementary football season is officially done.  Now we turn our focus to homework (Will are you reading this?) and get ready for basketball. 

October weekend

I posted these pictures last Sunday night, planning to write about our weekend Monday night, and well now it's Sunday night again.  So here we go.  Last weekend, we had a bit of a cold snap which put a slight damper on our Saturday plans.  Will had his second-to-last (penultimate!) tackle football game and it turned out to be his best game of the season.  He caught a pass for a 2 pt conversion (his first score!) caught a few other passes and had a great tackling game.  It was a lot of fun to watch.  I forgot to take the camera so I didn't get any pictures.  Reina took a few selfies....

This was one of about 40 pics.  Look at those flowing locks.  

After the game, Will and I headed to Denver.  I was running a race Sunday morning and then Will and I had tickets to the Rockies playoff game.  It was all very exciting.  Glenn and Reina stayed in Cheyenne.  Reina had her first all-girls sleepover to attend and Glenn had a blissful evening at home by himself.  I was a little jealous. 

Will checking out the sights from our hotel room.  We had a lot of fun exploring downtown Denver.  I survived a trip to Pac Sun with a tween and Will lasted 15 minutes in H&M before complaining of boredom.  What a trooper.  

Sunday, I ran my race (Hot Choco 15k and didn't barf) and then Will and I worked our way towards Coors Field for a Rockies playoff game vs the Brewers.  The game didn't end the way we wanted it to but I'm so glad we had the chance to go.  A few weeks before the end of the regular season, I had a chance to enter a lottery for a chance to buy playoff tickets.  I was worried I would jinx the team but I went for it anyway and found out that I could buy two tickets.  I let Will and Glenn fight over who got to go with me and Will won out. 

We arrived at the stadium really early but we got to sneak down to the field level to watch the teams warm up.  It was really neat to see the players we've been watching all summer up close and in person.  

Obligatory selfie from our seats.  Go Rockies!  

The afternoon got colder and colder and the score went from hopeful to not so hopeful.  It also started raining every so slightly.  We stayed through the 7th inning and then thanked the Rockies for a great season and headed home.  I was chilly for the rest of the evening.  

Meanwhile, Glenn and Reina visited the Pauley grandparents and made old fashioned hats out of paper!  

I took Monday off because the kids didn't have school and I wanted a chance to hang out with my darling offspring.  Also, I had a bunch of laundry and other chores from the weekend.  But it was win-win because we crossed off a lot of things on our to-do list, like flu shots and cat vaccines. 

Who looks more excited for shots?  At least Will didn't meow at the window the whole time during our drive across town.  

The kids bravely got their flu shots.  By "bravely" I mean there was a minimum amount of whining, although Will asked Reina to go first and I had to buy donuts for my brave little soldiers afterwards.  Coco didn't need a darn donut, thank you very much.  But we did give her lots of cat treats.  We spent the rest of the day watching movies, working on school projects and doing the previously mentioned laundry. It was a pretty good way to start my week.