Whew, what a
week! It was busy and a little bit stressful
with that election dragging on for days.
Here’s the recap!
Monday, November 2 (Day 234 of
Quarantine)
Monday morning,
Olivia had her follow-up appointment with the orthopedist for her elbow bright
and early. She and I dropped Jacob at
school right at 7:30 and headed straight to the doctor’s office at 7:45. The doc did another exam, asked us a few
questions, and then promptly cleared her to resume all activities!! WOO HOO!
Thank you to all of you who have prayed for her these last couple of
weeks… your prayers were heard and answered.
We were in and out of there in just 20 minutes, so she only ended up
being about 15 minutes late for school… another success!
I headed
straight to Publix afterward, because I had to replenish all of the
refrigerator items we’d lost in the hurricane power outage the week prior to
that. Our school is also putting
together bags for Thanksgiving to give to our outreach center, so I bought all
of the items to fill our two bags, and they will be turned in to help families
in need for the holidays.
The rest of the
day was spent working, and then I grabbed the kids from school at 3. We had nowhere to be Monday evening, so I
made sausage, peppers, and onions tacos and B and I decided to go all out and
have some margs, too.
After dinner,
the kids and I went back upstairs and spent the rest of the evening decorating
the Christmas trees in their rooms. They
have SO many handmade ornaments that they’ve made throughout the years, so we
started putting those on the trees in their bedrooms last year to relieve some
of the heaviness from the main tree in our living room. It was bursting at the seams prior to that,
and we couldn’t fit all of the ornaments on the tree!
I know I
mentioned in my weekly recap post last week that my cousin, his wife, and his
son and daughter all got Covid… well, my cousin started having a really rough
go with his on Monday and he ended up going to the emergency room because he
was having difficulty breathing. He’s
been an EMT/nurse for the last 25ish years and he’s a really tough guy, so if
he went to the ER then you know it must have been really bad. Sure enough, he found out that he has
pneumonia in both lungs, so he was admitted to the Covid floor at our local hospital. Please, please continue to pray for him and the
rest of his family who are also suffering from Covid.
Tuesday, November 3 (Day 235 of
Quarantine)
Tuesday morning,
I did a cardio workout inside because it was 38 degrees and WAY too cold to
run. The rest of the day was spent
working until I had to pick the kids up from school.
Jacob’s baseball
tournament started Tuesday evening, and unfortunately, we lost. The team we played is by far the best in the
league, and in addition to that, our boys didn’t bring their A-game. Jacob struck out twice – that never happens –
and then his hard line-drive went straight to the short-stop’s glove and he
caught it. Jacob did finally get a
single for his last at-bat, and he scored a run that time, too, but sadly we
ended up losing 18-10. The tournament
was single elimination, so our Boo has officially played his last game of
c-ball ever. He was pretty bummed about
losing, and even more bummed that baseball is over, but we’re grateful that he
was even able to play at all this year.
Tuesday was
also, of course, Election Day, so B and I ended up staying up until 11:30
waiting to see what was going to happen.
Once ballot reporting started to slow down, we knew it was going to be a
long time, so we called it a night. This was the screen I stared at all week. Lol.
Also, on
Tuesday (I think?) my cousin’s daughter, who also has Covid, was taken to the
ER because she was having trouble breathing.
She’s only 18 years old, so Covid can definitely be scary for the
younger crowd, too.
Wednesday, November 4 (Day 236 of
Quarantine)
Wednesday morning,
I ended up waking up an entire hour early because I just couldn’t sleep. I spent the day working and popping in to
check election coverage here and there, but I didn’t spend every second
obsessing over it. My anxiety was
running pretty high, and letting myself get completely absorbed in it wouldn’t
have helped one bit.
Olivia had
dance Wednesday afternoon, and I spent that time catching up on emails,
listening to music that makes me happy, and letting myself just be.
It’s always too
late to cook anything too involved after dance, so Olivia and I picked up
Bojangles for dinner on the way home as it’s right on our route. We hadn’t had it in probably over a year, and
it was such a yummy treat! For those of
you who don’t know what Bojangles is, it’s kind of like a Popeyes, but
better. They make all of their biscuits
from scratch and they are amazing.
The rest of the
evening was spent prepping for Thursday, reading with Olivia, and watching some
TV with B.
Thursday, November 5 (Day 237 of
Quarantine)
Thursday morning, we woke up to… still not having a new president. Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, and Arizona (all swing states) were still tallying votes. So many mail-in ballots this year (because –
Covid) has made it a tough year for tallying.
But every vote deserves to be counted, and so we all continued to wait.
I headed out to pick up the kids from school at 2:30 as I always do, and
when I pulled up in the car line, I knew immediately something was wrong
because out on the main street there were police and sheriff cars everywhere. Sure enough, within seconds, my mom and Brian
both called me, and the school sent out their phone call/text message/email
blast saying that the school was on lockdown.
My mom told me that there was an armed suspect on campus, and they were
trying to find him or her.
Naturally, I got incredibly anxious and I wasn’t really sure what to do
about being in the car line. My mom
wanted to me to leave and go straight to my Mama Cass’s house, since she lives
just a couple of minutes from the school, but the car line was already packed
and there wasn’t an easy way out.
Fortunately, the lockdown only lasted a few more minutes and then the school
was able to lift it. I don’t have many
details about what happened, but it sounds like some random suspect must have
been passing through the area… the suspect was not specifically seeking out our
school or anything, thank God.
When the kids got in the car, Jacob was as cool and calm as can be, but
Olivia was crying. The whole thing had
freaked her out, and I just DESPISE the fact that we live in a world where my
kids can’t always feel safe at school.
I’m so very grateful that our school has such stringent lockdown
procedures, and I’m even more grateful that our school has an armed guard/guards
on campus at all times.
Olivia and I had a long chat on the way home, and I was able to ease her
fears, and she had made a full recovery by the time we arrived at home. I, on the other hand, was still quite shaken
up.
We spent the rest of the evening indulging in a glass of wine (B and me),
putting up the Christmas decorations on the mantle, and watching Donald Trump’s
very odd address to the nation.
Friday, November 6 (Day 238 of
Quarantine)
Friday was
another workday for me, and then I grabbed the kids from school, and we stopped
by Michael’s on the way home to pick up the Christmas tree I had ordered
earlier in the day. They had them marked
down for Black Friday prices this weekend!!
When we got
home, the kids and I spent the afternoon decorating the new tree in our master
bedroom while B wrapped up his workday. The
tree we had been using in our bedroom was 11 years old and on its last leg, so
it was long overdue to be replaced. I’m
loving that skinny tree in its place… it fits in that space so much better!
B picked up
Five Guys for dinner, and we whipped up a batch of Moscow Mules, and then we
spent the evening watching Home Alone 2… our first Christmas movie of the
season. B had to work on and off Friday
evening as his project at work just entered a crucial time, so he popped in and
out as he could. I fell straight to sleep. Hahahaha.
This time change has made me so tired this week! Still loving that feeling of sleeping later
in the morning, though!
Saturday, November 7 (Day 239 of
Quarantine)
Saturday morning,
I made some pumpkin pancakes that I had gotten at Trader Joe’s and the kids
were ecstatic. They’ve been begging me
to make pancakes forever and they were thrilled their day had finally come. I hadn’t made pancakes in years, and I enjoyed
them, too. I guess I’ll have to start
throwing those in the rotation more often!
After breakfast
was cleaned up, I did a 30-minute cardio workout, and then I got to work on the
Christmas decorating. We had already
gotten the trees up in my office and all of the bedrooms, but I had some tweaking
to do on each of them, plus, I wanted to decorate our entire downstairs
area.
We got the news
late Saturday morning that a winner had finally been declared in the Presidential
Election, and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. This election is the most stressful one I’ve lived
through so far, and this past week was just crazy, since it was so close. I was happy to hear the winner had been
declared, so we can all move on with our lives!
I ended up
decorating the house all day, only breaking for lunch and a quick shower, and I
ended up getting every single thing done that I can do right now! All that’s left to do now is decorate the big
tree in our living room when we get it the day after Thanksgiving, and then put
up the outdoor decorations when the time is more appropriate. Lol. I
know our neighbors are probably not ready to be seeing Christmas decorations
just yet… or maybe they are? It is 2020,
after all. Haha.
We watched the
Georgia vs. Florida game at 3:30 and we ended up losing. It was a heartbreaker of a game, too… SO many
injuries, including our quarterback’s throwing shoulder. Sigh. That
was likely the nail in the coffin for us advancing to the conference championship
game as we will have to win out and Florida will have to lose two
more games for that to happen. It is
2020, after all, though, so I didn’t have high hopes for this season anyway.
At 8, we sat
down with the kids and watched Kamala Harris and Joe Biden address the nation
and formally accept their positions as Vice President and President,
respectively. It was a monumental day
for women, minority women especially, as she will be the first woman Vice President of the United States ever. I’m
praying that these two make excellent decisions on behalf of our country and
that they end up representing us well.
Once that was
over, the kids went to bed, and B and I stayed up for a bit longer, watching
Notre Dame beat Clemson.
Sunday, November 8 (Day 240 of
Quarantine)
Sunday morning
was church and cinnamon rolls followed by homework, meal planning, and planning
the week ahead. The kids watched some TV
after their homework was done, and I tidied up after having 8 billion fall and
Christmas boxes out Saturday. We had a
quick lunch at home, and then afterward, we went for a walk around our
neighborhood. We’re supposed to have a
lot of rain this week from – get this – another hurricane (eye roll), so
we wanted to get them outside before we’re stuck inside all week.
We walked to
our neighborhood playground, let the kids play for a long time, and then we
walked back home. The playground area is
pretty large, so B and I are able to walk a big circle around it while they
play, and that’s so nice!
When we got
back home, B and the kids played video games for a bit while I got some work
done, and then we finished the day with a charcuterie board, wine, a game of Headbanz, a dance party, and some
downtime in front of the TV.
