Covid 148---Somedays I wish to be old and sitting in a rocker bored...

...this was one of those days.

Sometimes I'm ready to just fast forward to slower times.  Not sure if those are ever in the cards for me again, but I am hopeful.

Today was more of the same.  Up early to get Ashley to a bday party at Lake Griffy (kayaking with two church friends...so sweet and a beautiful morning at the lake...but too early for me!). Thankfully Ash is a very early riser!  

Then in the midst of that I ran Shelb to the doc for her annual appt and physical.  We've had a go around with her coach about her iron level.  I was very doubtful she was anemic, but at the last minute they did a finger prick and turns out she is very anemic. No wonder she had been falling asleep at xc practice.  Poor low hemogobin girl!  She's now on iron pills and praying she doesn't have the side affects I did in college with them.  

Then back to get Ash at the lake.  Then take Dyl to a last minute core group with the guys outside church.  He has such sweet college kid leaders.  I love that my kids all have amazing leaders of faith!  Then ran to both schools to get ipads and books and packets.  To high school to get Shelb's and then to elem to get Lo and Ash.  So crazy...who would have thought a year ago I'd be driving up in my van with a mask on and getting school stuff to do at home virtually.  Life is full of surprises.  Then back to get Dyl at church, run to CVS to get iron.  And then my afternoon of cat clean up began. I cleaned 19 traps and 6 carriers along with odds and ends.  I smelled like poop, wanted to vomit and was pretty much cursing the feline name.  I am glad I never became a vet.  I much prefer human feces, vomit and smells.  I know that sounds weird, but nursing is much more my style.  

 

Covid 147--a day so busy I don't remember what I did! lol

 The days are getting shorter and the mind is getting blurrier.  All I can say is I am so glad we have not started school yet!  God knew we needed some extra summer time and some days to get our act together!  I just run from morn til evening...though I will say I was home for about an hour today, but in that time I had to figure out the school canvas virtual system which totally overwhelmed me bc I found out I was registered twice.  Once in 2015 and once this year.  Good grief.  I stink at virtual stuff!  This is going to be a fun start to the school year!  Anyway....I was up early to see the girls off to shopping with Nina Stegs at the outlet mall in Indy...I think they had a good ol' time shopping for school stuff (without trying it on bc ya' know...covid restrictions!  I saw a pic of Shelb trying on a bra over her clothes.  Lol!) :). They found lots of goodies and had Freddy's for lunch.  Then home to quickly drop Shelby for XC.  I was off to see one of my sweet preschoolers at the park and took Logan along for the fun, thinking he'd enjoy it. He hated it and wanted to come home right away. So no more of that for me! lol!  But I was happy to see a couple of my fav people, my partner in crime co-teacher included.  Very grateful we both quit this year!  I am ready to just focus on my own family for a year!  Shelb had XC and is not loving afternoon practices bc of the heat. She fell asleep on the ride home so it's a good thing she didn't drive today!  Then raced Dylan to his first official soccer practice and back and forth to do some crazy cat stuff...and to Culvers to grab Dyl dinner (thx Nina and Pops!) and off to his ALPs middle school covid party...just getting home from that now.  But such a good evening with friends and teachers.  Grateful for nice weather to gather and exist at a distance! haha :). Life is very full as we prep for school....got 2 steg high schoolers their first real phones (thx daddy!), Dylan got another BTV video award that we had to resubmit (this one a high school one), and lots of prep for this crazy virtual year.  I'm getting myself mentally prepared, but honestly just ready for a vacay that likely will never come!

Covid 146--A big ol' playdate day! And we have a new driver on our hands!

Clear the roads...Shelby officially has her license and is on the road!  She even drove Kev to work so she could have the car to drive herself to XC practice for the first time by her self.  I loved seeing her running friends' reactions...all three of the new drivers were parked right by each other! lol :). I tried not to stalk and take too many pics :). What a pain at the BMV with waiting outside and 6 ft apart and masked...and you now need to have your social security number...which we didn't know so had to wait longer to find that out. Always something...but for once we encountered niceness...the lady security guard was super sweet and patient (and we had fun celebrating her with a "clear the roads, Shelby is a new licensed driver" sub, brownie, rice krispie treat meal...all in the shapes of cars...a tradition we started with Hailey when she got her license!).  Dyl had his 2nd to last PT appt and the hammy is doing awesome! Praise God! And I guess he had a 3rd day of tryouts today since Monday was a rain day/gym day, but is now an officially official JV goalie on the soccer team!  YAY!  All great news.  And the crazy part of our day was extra kids.  We ended up with 6.  Started out with two brothers over, then added another neighbor and two other friends...and another at the last minute. I figure "go big or go home".  May as well have one big playdate where everyone has a friend...Logan had 4.  Lol.  I'm not much of a playdate mom, but they did have fun and they are all tired tonight after sliding on our slide, playing outside (and Dyl and his bud playing switch).  And I've been driving around with 9 cats in my van for most of the evening...one pooped right away (nervous poops seem to happen in our van lol!).  I'm kinda tired of a stinky van. And Dylan and his friend witnessed the poop and had to mask up and stick their heads out the window.  It's a joy to ride in our vehicle!  We now have two extra cats in our garage again.  Hopefully this weekend we are back to normal.  

Covid 145--kid and cat craziness...it seems neverending! ahh! Shelb passed her driving test and Dyl made the soccer team at North!

Well, I am about over it all.  Actually I'm way past over it all!  If I thought I had no time before, adding in cat trapping and caretaking and running back and forth to cat trapping sights has about exhausted all remaining energy I had.  But this week I turn in my cat trapping skills for virtual schooling skills and there will be no overlap.  I cannot do this while also helping my kids through their virtual schooling days.  But I digress.  I now have 6 cats in my garage again...and 4 in my house.  10 is too many! lol!  But that aside, the best news of the day was from Shelby and Dylan.  Shelby passed her driving test with flying colors!  She was so happy and I was so proud of her!  She nailed it!  I think she only lost 1point for going over a yellow line once and she did amazing parallel parking downtown and backing into a parking space, which she has rarely done.  No biggee!  She could have gotten her license today (first day to do so!), but she went to XC instead and helped take her friend too...so that was a nice sacrifice.  Tomorrow she'll get the real deal and drive herself to XC.  And pretty soon get a car that she's been saving up for for awhile!  And Dyl made the JV soccer team at North!  Woohoo!  He worked soooo hard for this accomplishment and there was a time a month ago when his hamstring was not cooperating that we thought he'd have to give up this dream.  We think he might even be the starting goalie!  Congrats, Dyl!  Making a cut sport is a big deal in high school I think!  So proud of my kids for working so hard even amidst the ups and downs of covid and the craziness.  In other news, Hailey mowed our lawn for the first time.  lol!  Great job, Hays! And she and Ash have been busy making masks today.  Logan made a tent for himself and the kitties and he was mad at the tooth fairy for not stopping by to take his tooth and leave some cash. His response, "She must be in FL" :). True dat! lol :). I'm excited today bc I finally have a phone with a good camera again!  And Dylan is getting my old one.  And Shelby has a real phone for the first time.  Not sure how we escaped without buying her a real phone til she was 16, but hurrah for that money saved!  My kiddos are growing up!  

Covid 144—craziness, cats, etc...

Yikes...one day life will slow down.  I pray for that daily.  But today was a crazy one of trapping about 25 cats and getting them ready to send out of town to be fixed.  One day I'll start posting pics again and you'll see proof of all this craziness.  I think there were like 50 cats in this garage I was in tonight...had to label them all, feed them, prep them for surgery, etc.  I had no idea the feral cat population was so high!  It's nuts.  And maybe I'm nuts for helping. LOL.  

Covid 143--Tubing in Turkey Run...so fun!

Woohoo...we had a blast tubing on this beautiful day in Turkey Run (Sugar Creek)...about 2 hours away from Bloomy.  I had no expectations as to what this would be like, but it was like a little piece of Maggie Valley, NC in Indiana.  A fun little river (creek actually) and waterfalls, turtles, suspension and covered bridges and lots of canoeing, kayaking and tubing!  We even had a raft for our coolers! lol :).  And someone even brought their cat tubing! Lol!  It was a fun afternoon chilling in the water and enjoying the sunshine. It was supposed to be our last family hurrah with school starting on Wednesday (but now it's delayed a week and all virtual til mid Sept)....but it was still fun to celebrate summer with one last lil' family trip.  We packed a lil lunch and stopped along the way and ate and just enjoyed chilling and watching the sights.  I'd definitely recommend it!  We did have to wear masks part of the time, but it was still a nice retreat from covid craziness.  Can't believe it's August and summer is almost over.  This summer flew by like no other!  ahh!

Covid 142--Holiday World Day! YAY!

Well, today was our annual scout (aka cheap/free) Holiday World trip!  We were so grateful that even with Covid craziness we could still go and the park was still open.  If you don't know this awesome amusement park, it's the best Indiana has to offer and it's pretty darn awesome and less than 2 hours away.  Down in the corn fields of Santa Claus, Indiana...it's themes are all different holidays and all different coasters...and a whole water park too.  When we go with scouts Kev and Lo are free...and the rest of us are $20 each.  We all love it...well, Hailey doesn't bc she's got a covid fear now, but that's ok. I respect that.  She enjoyed a dry day at home with the kitties.  I'll be honest, I thought the day would be a total washout. It predicted almost 100% rain all day, but it only rained for part of it and when it did rain we were in the water park and it didn't matter.  We did have to wear masks a lot, hand sanitize more than usual and keep our social distance from the minimal crowds (plus use their new ride app so we weren't squished in long lines all day)...but we still got our free unlimited soft drinks, got to ride almost every ride we wanted (minus the new water ride that someone vomited on and it was "sanitized" all day long).  We had fun....saw a few cool friends in the process and had some good memories and laughs.  And I realized that when you're cold or it's raining it's kinda nice to have half your face covered up by something soft and warm.  :). Thanks, Loggy, for doing scouts so we can make this our annual trip!  It was a nice getaway from Covid craziness.  And oddly enough everyone at HW was lovely and not covid-crazy/rude!  Hurrah for that!