COVID-19 Day 191

We're one day closer to picking up our new little spiky friend!  I can barely contain my excitement!  Yesterday after taking the kids to school I came home and cleaned a bit.  Then, TJ came over with good news that he MIGHT not have to move to Topeka and that his new job might be done entirely remotely in the future!  We were so excited!  We sat around and talked for a couple hours, then went to lunch and ran some errands together.  He and I managed to find a storage bin that we think is going to work for Mint!

The research I've done typically says that 2 square feet is the bare minimum amount of space that they need.  3+ feet is better if you can get it.  The bin I got is 3 ft x 1.5 ft, so she'll have 4.5 sq ft to run around in.  I think that should work pretty well.  TJ and I also found some cute fleece that I have begun to use to make bedding pads for her.  We won't be able to use them right when we get her, but hopefully shortly after we get her we can get her little trained and then use the pads.  After the kids went to bed last night I got to work!  I began cutting up fleece and old towels and sewing them together.  They feel like little blankets.  And they are super cute!  Adding the towel to the middle, with the fleece on both sides, makes it plenty heavy, so I think it will stay put in her cage pretty well.  It will also be super nice to not have to buy as much litter, and to be able to machine wash her cage lining!  I told Michael (or maybe it was Sis) that is was very similar to using cloth diapers.  We're going to save plenty on not having to buy lots of wood chips.  Finger crossed she litter trains easily!  🤞

It's going to be just like a little carpet!!  I told Michael and Sis it was going to look like a hedgehog dorm room when all her goodies were in there!  🤣  I have to admit that my first couple of attempts here are obviously not the perfect size.  Some issues I was running into were that the fleece was stretching and the towel wasn't.  Also, I didn't have a great space to spread the fabric out and measure it well.  I will get better!  But for now, at least we have a little something to start with (once she's trained).  I'm sure Avery will like picking out fleece as well once she knows about Mint and designing her "room" how she likes.  😊

The breeder also sent me new pictures of her yesterday!  I have to say, I fell even more in love with her after seeing them!!  I had originally also had my eye on a little boy hedgie named Ginseng.  He wasn't as dark as Mint, more brown in his face, and more of a white mask above his eyes.  He was very much the traditional hedgie coloring.  But we decided to go with Mint instead.  In the newest pictures we got of her, you can see more brown in her face, it's not all dark and black like I originally thought.  You can see a distinct color difference between her black eyes and the brown in her face.  Also, the white above her face seems a bit more pronounced now too.  Michael thinks that their colors change a bit as they grow, similar to how Harlee's colors changed.  She was almost entirely black and brown on her face when we got her as a puppy, but as she got older, the white became more prominent.  

So I guess I better share the new pictures with you!!

So here is a picture of Mint with her litter-mates.  Mint is the one on top, toward the right with her face showing.  The breeder said she was really calm and relaxed last night and got a few pictures of just Mint as well.

Oh my goodness!  Isn't she just the cutest?!?!  She's obviously very calm with being handled, as she's not even attempting to roll into a ball!  I asked if she was also comfortable being handled by kids.  The breeder said that her kids handle her just as well as she does.  Of course, I'm sure that her kids have been handling hedgies for most of their lives.  I'm looking forward to having her here at home and letting the kids handle her and play with her.  Even though she's available as early as next weekend, I didn't want to have to try to hide her from Avery any longer than I had to.  Avery's birthday isn't until Monday, the 5th.  I go to pick Mint up on the Thursday, the 1st.  I'm already thinking I won't make it until Monday to give her to her.  I'm hoping to make it till Saturday or Sunday, but I might end up giving her to Avery as early as Friday after school...  We shall see...

Anyways, I'm so so excited about her!  I'm still doing tons of research and planning!  I can't wait for all of her stuff to get here.  I need to take the log back to WalMart.  I bought her a cute fleece hidey hole teepee thing on Etsy yesterday that I think she'll like better than the log.  As the packages start coming in, I think her hole is really going to start taking shape!  I'll post pictures along the way!

This is the hidey hole I ordered her!!  I think she'll be nice and cozy in here!  I should really learn how to make these things as well as the fun fleece tubes and such!  She's is going to have a pretty tricked out home!  I can't wait!!!  😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

COVID-19 Day 190

I should be asleep.  It's after 1am.  But I am too excited!  I have been doing research all night!  I guess I'll have to take a nap tomorrow.  Good thing I have the day off!  The reason I'm excited and have been up all night, is because Michael said yes!

WE'RE

GETTING

A

HEDGEHOG!!!!!!!!

Well, technically, Avery is getting a hedgehog.  For her birthday.  She's been begging for a pet of her own for a while now.  Connor brought home a book about baby hedgehogs.  I thought they were cute.  I found out the babies are called Hoglets.  And it was all downhill from there!!

To be fair, Michael had multiple opportunities to tell me no, but he didn't.  I think, deep down inside, he thought it would be a cool pet too.  :) So I've been doing research all night.  I already contacted a breeder (in Iola), picked a hedge (omg. so cute!), paid for her (she didn't cost as much as either of Sis' dogs), and planned a date to go pick her up (Thursday, Oct. 1st).  So, Mama, when you read this, text me ad let me know if you want to go with me to pick her up!  :D

I hope Avery likes her.  If not, I know I'm going to love her!!  Did you know that you can litter box train them?!?!  Yup, already did research on that!  I went out with Sis tonight and bought a few things, like food and water dishes, bedding, a hidey hole (which I may return for something cozier), and a water bottle (because I didn't know exactly how big she'd be when I got her, how she'd reach the bottle or if the dish would be better, or what she was using right now).  Since getting online and doing research I have bought her a wheel, her own set of fruit/veggie stuffies, a ball that distributes treats, a heating pad for under her cage, and a thermometer to go on her cage (hedgies need an environment of 72-80 degrees).  

Of course, as she will be Avery's pet, she will get all naming rights.  Right now her name is Mint, but I think Hedgwig would be a great name too!  ;)  We'll see what Avery decides!  But until you hear from Avery that she got a new pet, Mum's the word!!

Here she is!!!

She was born on August 8th.  She'll be almost 8 weeks old when we get her.  Her owner says that she's a sweet girl, but has been grumpy lately as she is quilling (her adult quills are growing in, not very comfy).  Her owner has been handling her and her littermates since they were 2 weeks old, so they're used to be handled (although they'll still have to get used to us, of course).

Here are some fun facts about hedgies!

They eat cat food!  It needs to be high in protein and low in fat.  They also like to snack on cheerios, mealworms, boiled chicken, scrambled eggs, carrots, apples, bananas, and berries (among other things).  They only need 1-3 tbsp of food/day.  Compare that to the 4-8 cups of food per day that Sis' new puppy is going to need!!  0_o

They can run up to 10 miles/night (did I mention they're nocturnal?).  Obviously a wheel was not an optional or enrichment sort of item for her cage, but something necessary to keep her healthy.

She will need an occasional bath.  Michael's cousin, Aby, who used to have a hedge, recommended non-scented soap and a toothbrush to really clean into her quills and under her toenails.  

I've already learned so much!  I'm super excited to get her!  The next couple weeks are going to fly by!  We have family pictures this weekend, we're going to get Sis' puppy next weekend (although I still need to ask Michael if he can pick up the kids from school that day and I can go), and then we (Mama?  Sis?  Michael?  Just me?) are going to pick up our hedgehog on Thursday the following week!!  So fun!!  I can't wait to meet our little hoglet!  :D

COVID-19 Day 189

 Good morning, again!  It is a beautiful morning to be out on the deck enjoying my breakfast and coffee!  I figured today would be a good time to talk about my new job a bit more since today is the first day that I'm home without the kids.  It will certainly take some getting used to, but I'm excited to be able to clean up the house and run errands and meal plan and buy groceries on my own.  I'm excited for some alone time for once!

So my new job is going great!!  I really love it!  My day is spent checking in and reshelving books, walking around the school to pick up books that the students are done with and ready to turn in, pulling books that 5th graders have put a hold on (think book version of Grub Hub, they order, I find the book and deliver), delivering those books to 5th graders, attending 2nd, 1st, 3rd, and Kindergarten classes with Karla to help check out books while she works on the lesson (the upper grades seem to be a little easier, so she's not needing my help as much with them, but still occasionally), processing new books so they can get out on the shelves for kids, and helping teachers with whatever tech or book issues they're having.  It's a very busy job.  I could easily work 40 hours and never run out of things to do.  Unfortunately, I cannot.  So I try to get as much done as possible in my 20 hours (and sometimes clock out and keep working).  As I mentioned, I'm looking forward to a couple days on my own, now.  Hopefully it will go well for the kids spending 3 days a week in the library before and after school and 2 days a week in the car rider line.  It's not ideal, but I think we can make it work.

I thought I was mostly going to be in the library this year and be pretty hands off with students.  I love working with students, and was a little disappointed about that, but at the same time, this is a perfect year to be hands off.  Well, it turns out I'm not as hands off as I thought I was going to be.  The first day I was working while students were in the building I stayed in the library and processed books all day, but the next 5 days, I was in several to all of the classrooms with Karla.  I thought I would be there for 2 days to introduce myself to all the kids before they stopped seeing me.  But with only a 30 minute class period and 20-27 students/class, plus her needing to teach a lesson, it was just more than she could do alone.  I want to help her and make her job easier, so I volunteered to go into rooms and help her.  Of course, that means exposing myself to almost every kid int he school, which wasn't my plan for this year.  So I had to text our friends Brian and Alli yesterday and explain that I'm having more contact with students than I previously thought, and that I thought we should press pause on seeing each other once a week.  Alli is pregnant and I would hate for something to happen to her because of me.  So that's the downside to this new job.  I have to be a lot more careful about who I'm coming in contact with.  At least for these first few weeks while we get everything figured out.  I'm hopeful that things will settle down and I can go back to being in the library primarily.  Time will tell.

That negative piece aside, I love my new job!  I love my new colleague!  I love working in the library and with the books, and even though it's a downside in another regard, I love getting into classrooms and seeing students.  I love them and missed the dearly.  This is a weird year, but we'll make it through.

Alright, I have to go make lunches and get my chilluns off to school now!  Talk more later!!

COVID-19 Day 188

 Good morning!  It's been over a week since I blogged and I figured you might like to hear how school and the new job are going.  :)  First off, I've taken Quarantine off my subject line on my blogs because we're not really quarantining anymore.  We're back at school, we go out, we might not be seeing some more vulnerable people as much at the moment, but as for my family, you could hardly consider the way we're living to be quarantine.  However, COVID is still very real and impacting our day to day lives.  This season isn't over yet, and though some restrictions have been lifted, we are still being effected daily by the virus.  This season will be much longer than people anticipated.  I am hopeful that things begin turning around by the Spring, and am hopeful that next school year, a year from now, will look "normal" again.  We shall see.  But enough about that...

The kids are loving school so much!!  They missed it a lot!  Even Connor started showing a little excitement, which is saying something for my little internal processor.  Avery says every day that her day was great!  She loves her teacher and her classmates.  She's enjoying being one of the older kids in the school.  She's still in the younger half, of course, but she sees herself as much older now.  ;)  She was looking through books here at home the other day and was saying she was ready to sell some at the garage sale because they were too easy, more like Kindergarten books, and she's a 2nd grader now.  I was particularly pleased about her choosing books as a point to notice she's getting older, more mature, and becoming a better reader.  I'm sure most of you are aware, but I was a little concerned about Avery and reading when she started school.  She didn't know all of her letters when she started Kindergarten.  We fought over sight words and I just felt like learning to read was more of a struggle for her.  However, she did well in Kindergarten.  Eager to please, she picked things up quickly and worked hard to impress her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Baker.  She quickly climbed to the top of the class where she helped others.  In 1st grade I told her teacher at conferences about some of my concerns from Kindergarten and she assured me that Avery was doing very well.  By the middle of the year she had joined the reading pull-out group for 1st graders who were reading above grade level and needed an extra challenge.  Then the Rona hit and we all went home.  I made sue the kids were reading at home the last quarter, as well as through the summer.  Our school does a program over the summer called Read 800.  The idea is that students are off about 8 weeks over the summer and should read about 100 minutes/wee to keep the "summer slide" at bay.  That's 20 minute/day, 5 days a week.  I had different expectations for them.  Over the summer I asked them to read 30 minutes a day all 7 days a week.  I also started them on their summer reading program the day school finished, instead of waiting until June.  And when school got pushed back an extra 3 weeks, I kept them reading all through August and into September, right until school started.  As a result, instead of completing 800 minutes of reading over the summer, Avery completed over 3200 minutes, and Connor, over 3000 minutes.  No summer slide or Rona repeats on my watch!  All that to say, I am extremely proud of my girl and the reader she's become.  Working in the library has helped me cultivate a love for reading in her.  As I wasn't much of a reader as a child, I'm hoping for more, for better, for her.  It's taken a while to find just the right kinds of books for her that she truly loves, but I have the entire library at my disposal, and Karla has allowed me to check extra books out for the kiddos, so we're making sure to get lots of reading done these days.  In other news, Avery is already standing out as a reliable student and someone her teacher can count on.  I've seen her in the hallway helping friends get to places around the school several times already.  So many times, that I finally had to stop and ask her.  Avery, do you have a job this week where you take kids and notes around the school, or does Mrs. Hoy just know she can count on you?  She just knows she can count on me, she replied.  I'm so proud of her!  She's a great student, a kind friend, and always full of ideas.  I'm really glad school is going well for her.

Connor is a little harder nut to crack.  I know he's enjoying school and glad to be back.  He's already mentioned playing with Isaiah at recess and I'm glad he has that good friend with him and at his side this year, since it will be a little bit tough.  He seems to have gotten over his concern about me being in his school and his class.  The first day I walked into his class, I expected him to be embarrassed when the other kids noticed his mom walking in, but he spoke right up and said, "Hi, Mom!"  It was so sweet!  Only took 2 years of school to get him used to the idea.  ;)  He's making some new friends in his class and likes hanging out with the other boys, but even yesterday, he didn't want to tell me who he sat next to at lunch because it was a girl.  LOL!  Oh, sweet, silly boy!  He's excited to check out books again, although he checks out books after school as well.  He's enjoying being part of his class.  His teacher, Mrs. Grisier is very kind and I know that she'll love on him a lot this year.  I'm excited to see how he's challenged this year.  At conferences last year his teacher, Mrs. Ybarra, mentioned gifted and getting him tested down the road.  I wonder what Mrs. Grisier will say this year.  We shall see...

The kids had a big day this last weekend!  TJ has accepted a new job in Topeka and is going to be leaving Wichita in October.  We've loved having him here in town so much!  He's at our house weekly, and sometimes 2 or 3 times a week.  We haven't told the kids he's leaving yet, but I think he's trying to get in as much time with all of us as he can before he leaves.  So Saturday he took them all day to spoil them, have fun, and do the uncle thing.  ;)  I got them tickets to the zoo since we have a membership.  They went there and spent several hours.  The kids got to ride the boat for the first time ever!  He also spoiled them with popcorn and dippin dots!  He took them to Bionic Burger for lunch, and to a Mexican bakery to pick out treats.  They also went to the mall to look at video games, which Connor thought about getting, but I think GameStop was just a tad overwhelming, and he's not real good at quick decisions.  The night before this, TJ, Michael, the kids and I all went to CSB and had drinks and dinner from the food truck The Flying Stove.  While we were sitting out on the patio, TJ told the kids that maybe they could go to Build-a-Bear the next day when they went out together.  So I got my phone out and went to the Build-a-Bear website so they could look at the stuffed animals.  I think this prep the night before is what made Connor decide to get a stuffed animal instead of a video game.  He loves video games, but he also loves animals, particularly dogs, and stuffed animals that are or look like dogs.  He's had Timber, his Husky puppy from Build-a-Bear since we was about 8 months old.  In the last several months he's gotten Floppy, a coyote puppy from Mammoth Caves National Park, Rocky, a grey wolf from the zoo, and with TJ he also got a German Shepherd puppy from Build-a-Bear that he named ______.  (I can't remember!  I'll fill that in in a sec, or later...)  So now he's up to 4 different dogs or dog-like stuffed animals.  Avery got a new unicorn at BAB.  Her name is Rainbow.  TJ, being the uncle who doesn't say no, also let them add smells and sounds to their new stuffies.  But the fun didn't end there!  They also got special boxes, and Connor got a dish with food and water for his puppy.  I can only imagine how much he spent there...  0_o  But they all had a great day!

Well, I was going to tell you how my job is going, but it's after 7 now and the kids need to get up and eat and choose what they want for lunch, so I have to run!  Tomorrow is my first day off while the kids go to school.  It's going to be so strange!  I'm getting my hair cut, and having lunch with Sis and TJ, so that should be fun.  I might blog some more then.  Chat with ya later!!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 179

Good Morning, Everyone!  I'm back on the deck enjoying the beautiful cool morning air with my iced coffee.  The days of summer are rapidly passing by.  Very soon school will be started again.  I'm looking forward to the kids being back, I know they have missed being at school with their friends.  It will be a different kind of year, but I hope it will also be a good year for them.

The last week, I've been taking the kids out to do our special, back to school day.  Avery and I went out on Thursday.  We had a very busy day!  We started by taking her friends home, because we had had a sleep over the night before.  She was a little hungry, so next we went to get a donut from Dunkin.  Then, we ran to Dillons to grab hand sanitizer, wipes, and paint, to finish up her school supply list.  (I totally forgot about the ziplock bags.  Going to have to add them to my clicklist today or tomorrow.)  At 10am Avery had an appointment to get her hair cut.  Since she's wanting it to grow out, it wasn't a real intense appointment.  Just a trim, really.  Her (our) stylist, Allison, at Eric Fisher East, evened everything out, so it was the same length all the way around.  Avery also talked her into styling her hair for her.  So she got it blowdried and some big, beautiful loose curls put in.  Everywhere we went for the rest of the day, she was asking workers, "Did you notice my new haircut??"  She was so proud!  <3

After her haircut, Avery decided she wanted to go to the zoo, after I listed a bunch of possible activities to do.  We haven't been in over 6 months.  It was nice to get back for a bit.  While we were there, she got hungry, so we went to the Beastro for lunch and she had a cheeseburger and fries.  After lunch we checked out a bit more of the zoo before we had to go to our appointment for pedicures.  But before we got all the way out, we stopped in the gift shop and Avery picked out a new mask and a stuffed animal to bring home, Nancy Fancy, the snake.  ;)  When we go out for activities and things, a lot of the time, I say no when asked if we can get this or that.  On our special back to school day, I almost always say yes.  It's like our own, special "Treat Yo Self" day.  :D

I think the princess pedicure is one of the things Avery looks forward to the most at the beginning of the school year when she and I go out together.  We get our toes done, she gets a design painted on hers, she gets a snack, and we enjoy the massage chairs.  For the 3 or 4 years we've done this together.  We go to Classy Nails on north Greenwich near Cabela's.  They are so nice and personable!  We really always have a great experience.  It's a little pricier than some other places around town (Sis, Mama, and I usually go to Ivy Nails near my house because the price is so much lower, and I've had a pedicure at Beau Monde before, which was also really good but super spendy), but they have the smaller princess chairs for Avery and it's just another part of the experience that makes it special for her.  So we spend a little extra once a year to really spoil her before school gets started.  :)

After pedicure we decided we needed a treat.  I asked Avery what ype of thing she thought sounded good, and she said ice cream.  Having just finished another August BuyICT Challenge (and winning a $50 Meddy's gift card, I might add), I was thinking we needed to do something local for our treat.  Instead of ice cream, we landed on Gelato from Cocoa Dolce.  When I was growing up, Daddy used to say I had champagne tastes on a beer budget.  But I didn't get pedicures before I started Kindergarten or introduced to the wonders of Cocoa Dolce until much later in life.  Bless her future husband...  I hope he makes bank...  Cause I am certainly introducing her to some costly indulgences, lol!  At least Michael makes enough that she and I can go out and do some of these fancy things once or twice a year.  He's more of a burgers and pizza guy, so there's a little extra spending money in the budget for Avery and me.  ;)  Oh yeah, she got a macaroon too, because they are just too pretty!  #TreatYoSelf

All in all, Avery and I had a great day.  It's fun to say yes and really spoil her.  I was plenty worn out by the time our day was over.  But my girl is non-stop, so shortly after we got home she was asking to go to the park.  I made her a little sad when I explained that we'd been out all day and I wasn't going, and worse, no, she wasn't allowed to go by herself.  Fortunately, though, she got to go the next day with Mama as well as Michael.  She was hot and tired by the end.  Michael made sure she stayed out and played since that's what she'd been begging for for two days.  She hasn't asked to go back since...  LOL!

Connor's and my day was a little different.  Although I planned on a very similar day, Connor didn't need a haircut, because he'd just gone out with Michael to get one, and didn't want a pedicure.  That was fine.  We'd still find plenty to do.  However, shortly after getting out of the shower, Mama came in and said Daddy had fallen off the ladder and was home bleeding and that she needed to go.  I went with her.  Daddy was fine, although pretty beaten up.  We brought him back to town with us and he rested as Avery and Mama had their day and Connor and I left for ours.  So our day started closer to noon than breakfast time, but we stayed out a little later than Avery and I did, so it all worked out.  :)

Before we went to Towanda, I asked Connor if he wanted to go out for breakfast or have it at home.  We had Crunch Berries at the house, so he said he wanted breakfast at home, but also that he wanted to go out.  I told him we'd go out for lunch.  So that's how we ended up starting our day.  He wanted pizza.  And, as I did with Avery, I tried to steer him towards something local.  He jumped at the chance to go back to Ziggy's.  He ordered an entire pepperoni pizza for himself (leftovers of Ziggy's are never a problem in our house).  He even ordered a "Sunday Funday" and got to enjoy a giant bowl of ice cream after he was done eating pizza.  To say he was a happy camper would be underplaying it a bit.  ;)

After lunch Connor was anxious to get to the zoo.  He had heard about Avery going the day before and he definitely wanted to go too!  I gave him a list of a lot of places to go, but the zoo was already decided in his mind.  We ended up being there for 3 hours!!  He had a great time walking around and seeing the animals.  He was so cute, posing for pictures!  "Hey mom!  Get a picture of me with the giraffe statue and the real giraffe!"  "Hey mom!  Will you take a picture of me with the bison?  Did you get the real bison n the picture?"  I just love him so much!  He's so stinkin cute!  After our trip, we too went to the gift shop to pick out something special to take home.  I can count on one hand the number of times they've gotten to buy stuff from the zoo gift shop, even though we've probably been there a hundred times.  So being able to buy something is a pretty big deal.  Instead of a $5 stuffed animal, like Avery picked, Connor was drawn to a large gray and white wolf that looks like his Build a Bear Husky puppy, Timber.  It was $20, which is really more than I wanted to pay for another stuffed animal.  He looked around for something cheaper when I suggested maybe we get something a little smaller, and would have found something, he's sweet like that if I say something is too expensive, he accepts it and moves on.  But when he didn't settle on something after several minutes, I asked again if he wanted the wolf.  He said he liked it, but it was too much money.  That wasn't what I wanted him to leave feeling like.  Heck, Avery and I had gone out the day before for expensive pedicures, and all Connor was asking for was a stuffed animal to match the one he's loved for over 5 years.  So I told him we'd get it.  What's $20 in the long run?  I told Connor to give him a great big hug and see if he was just right.  He did, and his eyes lit up.  He loves it.  :)  So that's what Connor got.  None of the masks struck his fancy, so the wolf was all we took home that day.  Connor's arms need to grow a little more now to hold all of the stuffed animals he loves dearly.  Right now, the ones he's clinging to most are Timber, Rocky (the wolf), and Floppy (his coyote from Mammoth Caves National park).  He's such a sweet kid, and a total animal lover.  I love him so much!

After the zoo, I told Connor we had time to go out and do one more thing if he wanted.  Of course, being put on the spot like that, he didn't really have a plan.  I named several activities or special things we could do, but he was struggling to pick.  Then, I asked if he wanted to just go home and go to the pool or play his video games.  He thought going home for video games sounded good.  Even though it was a Friday, I gave him a pass on his list since he'd been out with me all day.  He was so excited to get home and talk to Michael about video games and show Rocky to Michael and Avery.  It was a very Connor decision.  We went out and did a little, but in the end, he's a bit of a home body like his dad.  We both enjoyed the quality time together though, and I hope his day was great.  Avery and I both tend to wear our emotions on our sleeves, so I can see what a good day she's having.  Connor processes so much internally, that I often wonder if he's having as much fun.  They're just different kids.  I love them both so much and had so much fun with them!  I'll have to post pictures of our days later, as I'm currently typing on the chromebook and all the pictures haven't uploaded to the cloud yet.

Saturday, Michael and I did a special day together as well.  I had told him, maybe a month ago, I would really like to go on a date.  Let me know if you need help planning a sitter or any activities.  We went out on a date night while we were in Tennessee and it was great!  I wish we had the time and resources to make date nights like that happen more often, but we just don't.  Fortunately, we can still have nice days together at home, or nice dates with the kids included.  However, sometimes I don't want to divide my attention between him and the kids or stay at home watching a movie or tv like we do many night.  Every now and then, I want to go out and do things.  I'm not the home body my guys are, and being home too much can get me in quite a funk.  I've ebbed and flowed through that over the past 6 months as we navigate through life with the ever present danger of COVID.  So I try not to be too demanding, because I know now isn't the best time to go out and do a lot.  But it was something I needed, even if it wasn't much, just some time to focus on one another and get away for a minute.  We had a great Date Day on Saturday together.  Huge Thank You to my mom for watching the kids all day for us (about 12 hours)!!  I'll post more about all the fun we had on our day later.  I think I've said enough for this one blog.  Maybe once school starts I'll be better about blogging on Thursdays and Fridays when I'm off work.  We shall see.  Until then, Happy Labor Day and Happy Draft Day for our Fantasy Football League!  Yay!!!  More later!  Love ya!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 174

Good morning!  Sorry it's been a while since I wrote!  Going back to work has made me busier during the day and more tired/focused on housework in the evenings.  The teachers have been at school for almost 3 weeks now.  We have got a lot done around the school to keep kids safe and change the way to interact with and teach kids.  It's going to be a wild year!  I am still completely in love with the library!  I love my new job and my new role!  I love getting to work with Karla as well!  I feel like we're a really good fit.  😊  I don't know if I mentioned this here on the blog yet, but Karla already has got me thinking about my future here at the library.  On my 2nd week of work she mentioned that she only has 9 years left until she can retire, and since I already have my teaching degree, all I'd need to take over would be my masters in library (which is available online through several schools).  So that's something to think about, I guess...  Michael thinks that if it's something I'm interested in, I should go ahead and jump on now, as COVID is making even more classes and opportunities digital.  We'll see!  For now I think I'll just wait and see what things are like once the kids get back in school.

School starts a week from today!  It feels like it's already started for me, since I've been back for 3 weeks, but I know the kids are very anxious to get back and be in person with their teachers.  They both got to meet their teachers yesterday through a Zoom call.  I think they're going to have a great year with these two great teachers.  Avery has Mrs. Hoy and Connor has Mrs. Grisier.  I think they'll fit very well with each teacher.

To get ready for the beginning of the yesr, I'm taking the kids out for a special day each before school starts.  Avery and I are going out tomorrow, and Connor and I are going out Friday.  😊  I have a haircut scheduled for Avery, and am going to try to get us in for pedicures as well.  The rest of the day will basically be up to her.  We'll go out to eat, do some fun activity, and pick up the last couple things we're still missing from her back to school list.  Connor has already had his haircut and probably doesn't want a pedicure, so I imagine our day will be a little more play and food.  😊  I love spoiling them a little extra right before school starts!

Speaking of spoiling them, we've had a couple playdates lately!  Well, we've had one, and we have another one tonight.  It's been quite a while since the kids had seen any of their school friends to play with, so I organized a couple play dates.  Connor went to Chase's house about a week ago and Avery is having Celia and Corinne over tonight.  When I find those friends for them and parents I really jive with, I try to further cultivate those friendships.  Connor and Chase aren't in the same class this year, so us moms are going to try extra hard to make sure the boys stay connected.  Celia and Corinne are both in Avery's class this year, so I know the three of them will only get closer!  ❤

It's going to be a crazy year!