Celebrations, Disappointments, & Milestones

Wow. What a crazy few months it has been! Everything seemed to pause, and then shift. So much has happened that I thought it was a good time for an update. Thanks for all the sweet messages asking how we have been doing since this whole pandemic thing exploded.

March 13th ended up being my kids' last day of "real" school. We did the whole at home learning thing. A couple did great, and a couple of them struggled. Patience was tested, deep breaths were taken, and life lessons were learned. It is something that I will look back on as mostly a good thing but I'm also hoping we don't ever have to do it again! The last day of school for us was on May 22nd and we all did a giant happy dance.

 

During the first month of all this, we tried to go on an adventure once a week. We headed down south a couple of times to warmer places and hiked. I am grateful we could social distance in such a beautiful place!

 

 

On May 20, 2020 my oldest graduated from high school. He was one that had a hard time with not being able to see friends and being in front of a computer all day. But he graduated with high honors and we are so proud!

 

 

His school did what they called a "hybrid" graduation. We all parked in the parking lot and faced a makeshift stage. They had speakers and such which was broadcast over our car radios like a drive in movie theater. Then we all one by one drove to the front of the school where the graduate got out of the car, walked the red carpet, and collected their diploma. Honestly, it was way more fun than a regular graduation! I think it will be a special memory for the class of 2020.

 

Shane and I celebrated 20 years of marriage in May. Since our plans got cancelled due to covid-19, we improvised and came up with plan B. We stayed the night in Salt Lake City in a nice hotel, got "to-go" food for dinner, and visited our old apartments from when we lived there as newlyweds.  We also strolled around the grounds of the temple where we were married. It was a nice walk down memory lane.

 

 

The next day the kids helped me make a dinner that they served us out on the patio. I had ordered some inflatable palm trees (from Oriental Trading) as decorations since we couldn't go the the actual beach. This anniversary pretty much summed up our marriage and seemed fitting. Compromises, laughter, and ups and downs.

 

 

The kids were pretty sad in the beginning of the at home learning experience. To cheer them up, and to give them something to do, we started converting our garage attic into a hang out space for them. We cleaned out the garage, took down the unsecured boards and added OSB boards as the floor, changed where the opening was, secured everything, added stairs, and water proofed the very Swiss cheese looking roof. Thank goodness Home Depot does delivery!

 

 

That is about as far as we got before I sprained my ankle. Womp, womp.... It was not related to the attic project, although I was in the garage at the time. I stood on things that were not stable in order to reach something high up. I have been in a boot for 5 weeks now and I still have a few more to go with possibly some physical therapy. I really did a number on it but I'm grateful I don't need surgery. Hopefully we can get the attic project back on track now that the yard work is all done and my ankle is starting to feel better.

We had some birthdays in April and May. Shane and my second son. Since my son's birthday was right during the time when you could only be with immediate family, my extended family and his friends did a drive by birthday parade for him. Just one more unique and fun thing to come from this pandemic.

 

 

As per usual, I have three or so projects in varying stages of completion. I have one that is completed but I'm waiting on the green light from the company to share. I also got my garden in on time for a change. So in other words, there are lots of projects coming very soon!

I don't normally spend a lot of time on Facebook, but it has been fun to read people's experiences since this pandemic took over. It's nice to know others are going through similar things and feelings. I hope you all have weathered this storm okay. I hope you haven't been too negatively affected by this and have at least had some positive things come out of it. There is always good that comes out of  things like this. Always look for the good :)