It's beginning to look a lot like the second week of December

Apparently Christmas is 16 days away or something ridiculous.  I'm trying to wrap up my shopping for the out-of-town relatives and I'm having a modicum of success.  I have yet to wrap a present or send a Christmas card but the house is decorated and the kids are getting excited.  The older they get, the harder it is to find something to surprise them but hopefully I've managed to do that this year.  Well, since this is an honest family blog, I have to report that Reina has already stumbled upon her big present.  We were hiding it in Glenn's hunting room and she went down there to get ready to go goose hunting with her dad and there it was sitting under the desk.  Her sweet conscience wouldn't let her keep that news to herself so she told her dad and then she told me and then she apologized like 20 more times even though it wasn't her fault that SOMEONE couldn't hid things better in his hunting room.  So that's where we are.  

Tomorrow Will gets to lead the school in the pledge of allegiance and read the morning announcements over the intercom.  It's part of the curriculum for his speech class.  Mr Introvert if very ready to have this project be completed.  He's practiced the pledge several times and I think he's ready to go.  Glenn was encouraging him to read the pledge passionately and with conviction but it comes across a bit Mussolini-like when Glenn does that so I think Will is going to go a different route.  I wish I could hear it in person.  

The rest of us are getting by, trying to enjoy this wonderful season even with all of the changes and weirdness.  

Will wrote Thanksgiving letters too!

I was trying to declutter the counter yesterday and I found two envelopes with 'mom' and 'dad' written in Will's handwriting.  Turns out he wrote thanksgiving notes to his parents last week too!  I don't think he was going to point it out.  I think he was just cleaning out his backpack and that was the result.  But look at the results:  

Dear Dad, thank you for always being there for me and teaching me lots of life lessons. 

Thank you Mom for always helping me in my life and providing me with food and shelter everyday of my life.  (Mine has two hearts drawn on it.)

I'm not going to quibble about the wording of 'food and shelter' and how it makes it sound like something that I'm contractually obligated to do and instead I'll just focus on the two hand-drawn hearts while my own melts a little bit.  He might be a teen but he's still our boy.  

Thanksgiving Weekend

A five-day weekend is unfortunately coming to an end tonight and it's back to the Monday routine tomorrow.  We had a nice break.  The kids were off school on Wednesday and I took the day off to bake some pies and make cranberry sauce.  We had a different Thanksgiving this year.  To be careful of germ-spreading, we opted to all eat at our own homes but we still shared a Thanksgiving meal with Vicky's family and some friends.  We provided the cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie and received a delivery of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin cheesecake in return. I dusted off the fancy china and moved my office off of the dining room table and the four of us had a nice meal.  On Friday, I masked up and did a little bit of Black Friday shopping.  Saturday, we masked up again to visit our favorite small businesses downtown but the rest of the weekend was a combination of football, crafts and long dog walks.  Not a bad way to spend a few days.  

We are all still healthy.  Kids are still in their classrooms.  I've lost track of case numbers in Wyoming but they continue to be alarming.  HOPEFULLY people have heeded the warnings and we won't see a spike from Thanksgiving but who knows.  Man I'm tired of writing about it but it fills up space in my head and in our conversations so it shows up here too.  

Glenn was hunting today so the kids and I hung up the Christmas lights outside.  That's usually Glenn's job but so many of our neighbors have hung up their lights early this year, I though it would be a good way to get us in the spirit too. I had two willing helpers who eagerly climbed up on the roof and we got it done.  We'll get the tree later in the week. I had big plans to deep clean the house before we decorated for Christmas but those plans are changing to a 'deep clean after Christmas....' but we'll see how the week goes. 

Reina's Thanksgiving Letter

 Reina's class wrote letters of thanksgiving to their families this week.  You are in for a treat because Reina went above and beyond and wrote Glenn and I our own individual letters.  Here you go. 

Dear Mr. Pauley

Hello Glenn, this is your landlord.  I have some unfortunate news.  You have twenty-four hours to pay your bills or you will be evicted, you and your family will leave your home and live on the streets if you don't pay your bills!  I'm sorry that I must be the one to tell you this sad news, oh and one last thing.  Thank you for being there for your daughter when she needs you.  She enjoys practicing punching and kicking.  She also feels happy when she scares you, it makes her laugh.  One of her favorite things to do is fist and hunt with you.  Thank you Mr. Pauley for being there for her.  Remember, you have twenty-four hours.  Sincerely, Mr. Landlord. 

Dear Lucy Rebecca Hansen or Pauley

Lucy my love, it has been ages since I last laid eyes on you and your curly hair. I miss your gentle eyes and your beautiful daughter Reina who loves you almost as much as I do.  My love, I feel a jealous rage to know I'm on not the only one to love you.  Your extremely lucky to have such a kind loving daughter who misses you every minute you are gone.  I thank you for being there for her. I am certain that your daughter would crumble without you.  My love I wish to see you soon.  For we are like lions of love.  Yours forever, Alfrendo Loveheart

So she's going to be an attorney based on the first letter, a screenwriter for Telenovela with the second letter right?  Help us all.  

Day 248

For posterity, here's a quick COVID update and a short anecdote to file under "working from home with a pack of wild animals." 

Wyoming has had over 25,000 with COVID, 800+ in just the last 24 hours.  We've had days in the last week where that daily average has been over 1000.  I think our state is in the top four for cases and deaths per capita.  Not a great statistic, Wyoming.  155 deaths as of today.  More counties are passing mask mandates but there are still big chunks of the population who think that masks are an infringement or they just don't work.  The outbreaks aren't coming from the schools in our town at least.  It seems to be tied more to bars, restaurants and gatherings.  The Governor may announce new restrictions soon, but he seems to want to leave it up to personal responsibility and that just doesn't seem to be working.  I'm trying to focus my energy on things that I can control - my family wearing masks, limiting our contact with the general public, good hygiene and staying sane.  Some days it's easier to do that than others. 

UW's football game has been canceled for the second week in a row because once again the other team has too many cases.  The college football season just seems like a big random mess at this point, although I have appreciated the distraction and a little bit of a normal feeling Saturday afternoon every once in a while.  I don't see how basketball at any level can happen but we'll take that one day at a time, too.  

Today I gave a presentation online to about 130 people.  Everything was going well until I knocked on my table to emphasis a point. Well, the dogs lost their ever-loving minds thinking that someone was at the door. I couldn't mute my microphone in time and the sound of my dogs barking ignited other dogs listening to their owner's zoom call to also bark and chaos ensued.  Everybody had a good sense of humor about it but I did wish I could rewind time just 10 seconds or so and not knock.  Anything but knocking.  I have to give the same presentation tomorrow so I'll either be looking up the hounds in another room or working on another way to speak with my hands.  

Earlier in the day, I participated in a different training and the presenter was talking about all of the ways that people manage their stress.  She mentioned that she watches NCIS-New Orleans and just typing that still makes me giggle.  Apparently, that's the worst of the NCIS options.  So we all jumped in with shows that help us distract ourselves. I admitted to Murder She Wrote.  Murder shows were actually pretty high on the list.  Who knew?  

One week from tonight, I'll be baking pies and hoping that we are getting together with family members the next day.  Fingers crossed.  

Our 15th Anniversary

 

I interrupt this quarantine diary to write a quick bit about our 15th Anniversary.  FIFTEEN!  Our marriage can get a learner's permit.  We celebrated like we usually do, ordered takeout and made vague plans to buy a new compost bin.  I was on board with this plan until I learned that the 15th anniversary's gift is alexandrite and now I might need to rethink that compost bin.  

I posted this picture on Facebook today with a comment about how Glenn asked if I wanted to split a fun size candy bar leftover from Halloween yesterday and despite that ridiculous request (just eat the dang candy bar Glenn!) I'd marry him all over again.  In some ways, the last fifteen years feel like they've flown by.  Other times, I forgot that I didn't know Glenn in high school because it feels like it's been that long.  Do I write that every year?  Well it's still true.  Happy Anniversary honey!

Day 238

This is my first post for November?  Yikes!  So much for writing once a day this month.  Truth be told, I think about writing a quick update just about every evening but by the time the monsters are in bed, my brain is struggling to play the word jumble game on my phone and those are usually just 3 or 4 letters.  So here we are. 

Everybody is healthy.  Everybody is still at school.  I'm still at home.  Glenn is still at work although his agency is scaling back the number of people in the office so he might be home more. I'm excited about that but I also have my little routine and hours and hours of enjoyable silence.... Wyoming has seen an increase in case numbers in the last few weeks.  On Friday we had almost 1000 cases in one day.  Today's total was almost 700.  I saw a statistic that said 1 in 100 Wyomingites have COVID.  We are doing what we can to reduce our exposure but also trying to support local businesses (versus everything online) and maintaining our mental health. I think that's been the goal since this whole thing started.  So Reina and Will trick-or-treated, Glenn went bird hunting with friends and I took a quick trip with V and a few friends to the Denver Art Museum last week.  Some days I'm so tired of all of this and just wish that I could jump on a plane like it was 2019 and go somewhere fun.  Other days, I'm excited to wash masks and refill hand sanitizers and place an order for grocery pick-up.  It continues to be a weird world to live in. 

Last week was the end of the first quarter for school.  We had a Zoom parent-teacher conference with Reina's teachers.  We heard that she's kind, follows directions well (?!) and is working hard.  She's getting good grades and we proud of her progress in math.  Sixth grade history is studying the ancient world right now (Egypt, Greece, etc.) and as the kids say, that is Reina's JAM.  She's continues to love all stuff old and isn't squeamish about mummies but is indignant about Greece's inability to recognize the value and contributions of women in Sparta.  Non-school related, Reina has been very interested/invested in the presidential election and had a few sleepless nights waiting for the election results. 

We opted out of junior high parent-teacher conferences but I did chat with Will's English teacher and got a nice email from his Speech teacher.  The speech teacher said he was a nice young man and he was doing well in her class.  Considering that public speaking (well actually drawing any sort of attention to yourself that's not taking place in a sporting realm) is probably the least favorite of Will's activities, I'm proud of him for working hard.  His English teacher said he's doing great.  Will's favorite class seems to be his Science class - they are studying the planets and the solar system and it's generated a lot of discussions that I'm super unprepared for but I can say that after helping him, I now know the difference between the waning moon and the waxing moon.  Will was also pretty interested in the election.  He woke up early Wednesday morning and the first thing he asked me was if there were any results.  He usually saves that kind of enthusiasm for late night football scores but he continues to be surprising at 13.  No sports for Will right now, basketball will start closer to Thanksgiving. 

Glenn had fun hunting in South Dakota.  He and his friends packed a bunch of food so they could limit public dining and he came with a bunch of birds that I probably won't eat but he loves them.  We all missed him but made it through the week relatively unscathed. I didn't even resort to making pancakes for dinner which is usually one of the my go-to meals when he's gone.  

I still need to write about Will's confirmation but Reina just got out of the shower and we're going to watch the next episode of The Mandalorian.  Grandma H, if you are reading this, we are kidnapping you over Christmas break and you are going to watch all of the episodes from Season 1 and 2.  Be ready.