Aftermath

 This week has been crazy.  We got home Sunday from our trip, put things away and got the house ready for daycare.  Started daycare Monday, visited with Jim, Judy, James(who's in town), Amy and some of the Hansen family, got sick Friday morning, Ada and I were diagnosed with Covid, shut down the daycare for the weekend, found a substitute for our musical number on Sunday, called everyone to let them know they were exposed to covid and found out that two of my daycare kids had also just gotten sick with strep and hand foot and mouth.  It's been quite the week.  We were registered to run the temple to temple run, but hung out at our house instead.  By Saturday/Sunday the rest of the family were all starting to show symptoms.  So far my helper, Beth, and one of the daycare kids have come down with covid.  Hopefully that's as far as it goes.  It's possible that we gave it to the Hansens and Grandparents, but we're praying that if we did.... it goes well.  I'm supposed to open the daycare Wed again, so tomorrow is sanitize the house and toys day.  The rest of my family is supposed to get out of quarantine Thursday, so they'll stay upstairs while my daycare is down.  My daycare partner is in Ecuador right now otherwise I'd have her take them for the rest of the week. Oh well. 

This is our second time with Covid.  This time it took about 3 really sick days and 2 kind of bleh days.  Ada and I have lost our sense of smell, but I prefer that to the tingly/itchy skin I had last time.

Chocolate dipping and Jer's birthday

Because of covid, we're still not doing our neighborhood parties, but we had my brother and one of our neighbors to dip chocolates this year.  They were so yummy and Jer got to dip a lot more than he usually does.

Jer got a Lego Millenium Falcon for his birthday.  You're never too old for Legos.

 

Snowy Christmas

Hanging out after Thanksgiving.... I just thought it was a cute picture.

We actually will have a snowy Christmas this year.  It's the first time in several years.  We definitely need the moisture, but it's fun for the kids too.

We had just come back from the store and Jer was still wearing his mask/bandana.  I told him he needed a hat and bolo tie.... so he went and got his hat out of the closet to model for me.

I was told 5 days before the last day of school that the PO had not done staff Christmas presents yet.  The President asked me what I'd done the year before and asked if I could be in charge of it again this year.  I was working, so I didn't have lots of time but the grocery store had these fun gift bags.  I called them up and asked if they could make 66 of them under my budget.  They called the lady that made these and she came it to specially make our order.  I was so grateful for people that are willing to go beyond to help (I gave her a Swig gift card that one of my daycare kids gave me for Christmas, I was just so glad that they were able to do them at such short notice).  They are the same people that helped me last year too.  They made beautiful and fun bags and each of the staff chose what they wanted.  I heard it was a big hit from my teachers aid friend, so that was good to hear.

Seth was disguised as "Bob". The daycare kids kept trying to wrestle him, so Evelyn and him came up with the plan to make him invisible to the kids by becoming someone else.  They were so funny about it.  And yes, when daycare kids have a cough I pay for masks and make them wear them at my house.  We've avoided many colds that way.

I love listening to Sam.  He's already getting quite good.

Ada made this piggy bank for one of the kids for Christmas!  I love it.

 

Piano recital

The kid's piano teacher split and did two recitals to limit the amount of people attending, but I was glad the kids got a chance to perform.  It's such a great skill as you grow to be adults.  They all did amazing!  They memorized their songs and no big mistakes.  

Their teacher is so spectacular and I'm happy to pay for lessons with her.  I could teach them myself, but I'm so happy for her abilities and the skills that she chooses to teach each of my kids.  Seth can't wait to start with her too.  I'm teaching him from home, but she takes kids starting at the age of 8.  I love that she was a piano performance major in college and that she chooses not to charge an arm and a leg even though she's worth it.

 

Monday

 

Monday was Sam's 7th grade day.  They have only the 7th graders so that they can explore the school, meet teachers, and experiment with lockers.  Sam was really grumpy (as he is with most new things), but when I asked about each thing he could tell me something he liked about it.  He loves the library, loves the options for lunch but is non plussed about how they actually taste (he threw away two lunches and was trying for a third before someone caught on and told him he's only allowed one lunch per day), he has several boys from our neighborhood in his classes, and he likes band and math.  The bus comes VERY early in the morning though.  Apparently the district is in need of 50 new bus drivers, so each bus driver that they have has to drive 2 separate routes.  I sure hope they're getting paid double as well. I have a friend that is so angry right now.  She's a single mother and wants to take her kids to two different schools for different programs.  Every school has something she doesn't like, but now she's saying that Utah schools are not set up for having single parents.  She's made that there isn't before and after care so that she can work. But every job has something wrong too.  It makes me wonder how much is Utah's system and how much is her own discontent over her personal situation.  She could be a bus driver, a lunch lady if she's worried about hours, a reading interventionist, part time somewhere while her kids are in full time school... It does say something about opportunity vs desire.

Our James and Emily cousins are in town for Education week.  It's so good to see them.  We only see them about once a year, so I'm glad for the opportunity.  The kids swam and chatted. I chatted with Emily, Judy and Emma on the porch.  I definitely didn't want to leave. The next day, we found out that James and Henry in Maryland tested positive for Covid.  So all of the rest of the kids and Emily went to get tested.  Their rapid result test came back negative, but they did a longer PCR test and Dunccan came back positive.  So now we're waiting the 6-7 days and we'll go get tested as well.  If we catch it, we aren't communicable until Sat or Sunday, so the schools said to let the kids come to school in masks. I've made all the arrangements to miss Sunday and for my partner to take the daycare on Monday or until we get our results back. I found a place that will test us on Saturday and hopefully we'll get our tests back the same day or by Monday. And hopefully they come back negative, but if not.... it was still good to see our cousins.

Evelyn loves Peter so much!

Sam's first day of school...

first day of school

It's the first day of school for these two nuttos. Evelyn is starting 5th grade and Seth is starting 2nd. Seth says that he already likes his teacher. Evelyn is super excited because her teacher used to be her coach. I feel good about this year and all the things that they're going to learn. Seth is excited that his best friend is in his class this year. Evelyn is friends with everyone so when we went to back to school night she kept saying hi to everyone in the hallways. My kids are some of the only kids wearing masks at the school but we explain to them why we want them to wear them and both of them said they would. I know Evelyn is very good at wearing masks and Seth keeps them on his face but has a hard time keeping it above his nose. We had debated whether or not to send them to school this week anyway. Our cousins that we were visiting with on Monday are covid positive. So we have to wait until Saturday or Monday to test and see if we are positive or negative. I called the school and they said that we should send the kids with masks on which we were planning on doing anyway. And to only take them out of school if they come back positive. We'll see how this goes.