We went to school for a bit to work on the Distant Learning plan. I felt very secure about the plan I had made and was just hoping my team had done the same. We stopped to get some laundry softener on the way home. We got home and started packing some more. We weeded out some more of Millie’s toys and put them on swap and shop. They sold
Immediately.
Tommy, Alice and Kalina came over for a play date. This kept the kids occupied while we frantically packed our stuff. We had a committee meeting at the club to discuss what activities we had planned for April that would most likely not take place. Tommy and Alice ended up having a sleepover. Joan and Gene dropped some things off for them and then we all agreed our kids would spend the night at theirs the following night, which would be every helpful to us. Cathy has come over and gone to the club with us. She also returned to the house for a chat before heading home. She was very sad for me that we were leaving both kids. I had settled on leaving Jack, but still needed to process leaving Millie.
Millie is quite possibly the oldest child in her class, yet the smallest. These are her besties.
We got up on Monday morning and started our packing again. We delivered some items to some neighbors that bought some stuff. The futon that Millie had slept on was one of the items. When I was stripping the bed, I discovered that the tooth she had pulled (or the one that had rotted out) on Sunday night was still under the pillow. Epic fail! I rushed to get some money and then had her come up to help me strip the bed. She then found the money. She and Alice both commented that ‘she’ must have come after they got up because the tooth was still there when they had checked just after they woke up. Oops!
We sat down for a breather and waited for some other people to show up and pick up purchased items. The news continued to spread the glum news of shut downs across the world. We continued to pray our flight on Wednesday morning would still go. Monday evening, after all bags were packed, we went to Brian and Lara’s for a bit and then Cathy and Tiff came over. We decided to order pizza, which we never do. It was actually good pizza. Cathy and Tiff left just before midnight and we went to bed.
Tuesday morning we got up and the house seemed strangely quiet. The kids had spent the night with Tommy and Alice. A double sleepover never happens! I worked on my plans for Distant Learning and felt I had a good handle on it. My first week of e-learning was ready to roll out. Going back to Arizona during this time will definitely prove to be a challenge.
Our cleaning lady came around 10 am. Then we realized she didn’t need to be there as she would be staying with the animals for the time we were in Arizona, so she would be able to clean the house during those weeks. I ended up taking her home and then I went on to the club for Jack and Millie’s going away party.
Although it was a gathering, the kids were outdoors and having a ball. We ordered pizza and fries for everyone. They all played for a few hours and then the time for the kids to part was upon us. Millie cried and cried when Alice left. She was so upset. Jack didn’t really get upset as Louie came home with us for a few hours. Millie ended up hanging out at Islay’s house until about 5:30 pm, when Cathy came over to babysit and Tiff, Stuart and myself went to the Year 5 gathering. Stuart’s team leader is also the wife of our Head of Junior School. We had a wonderful meal and fantastic conversation. We headed home around 11 pm, got to bed and then the alarm went off at 3 am. Ugh!
Cathy drove us to the airport. Cathy cried when she left the kids, and Millie did as well. I was still a bit apprehensive going through the airport. We had to go through a temperature screening in order to go to our gate. But once we got to the gate, we just went through and boarded the plane. It’s seemed relatively easy. The flight was packed.
And we were off for a 16 hour flight to LAX.
The flight was full. It was pretty uneventful as far as flights go. I watched several films I hadn’t seen before, which was a bonus. The kids watched movies, slept and ate at the appropriate times. When we landed at LAX none of us knew what to expect. Because the UAE is not one of the countries on the ‘isolate yourself for 14 days’ list, we were just told to be safe. The total process from customs to baggage to the rental car only took and hour and a half, which is unheard of at LAX.
Once we had the car and were on the road, we were keenly aware that maybe driving wasn’t that great of an idea. I had said I would drive, but definitely found myself dozing as a passenger. We stopped to drive through and get food, due to everything being shut. Restaurants were serving through the drive-thru but there was no dine-in. We cruised along until just after the town of Blythe, when we hit a delay. There had been a fatality heading in the same direction. Darkness had engulfed our journey and it had started to rain. Staying awake and concentrating was quite difficult.
Once we had passed the accident, we still had a long way to travel. The kids were troopers, but we were pretty sure jetlag would be in our future. We finally pulled into the car lot, known as my parents house, at 11:15 pm. My mom and I cried. This situation is very overwhelming. Then add the fact that the news came out and said no residence would be able to return to the UAE for at least the next two weeks, and you have yourself some very emotional people.
We were greeted by Grammie, Pop, Russ, my oldest brother, Morgan, my niece, and Donovan, her fiancé who had been in Arizona for baseball spring training. He is in the minor leagues with the Kansas City Royals. It was a wonderful greeting, as they were standing in the garage, it was dark and raining. My dad helped Stuart unload all 8 of our ‘at weight limit’ bags from the Suburban we had hired at LAX. That car was a monster. We went inside and had some sandwiches. The kids had slept in the car, but getting them in a routine would be the best thing we could do to avoid jetlag. So they showered after they had a bite to eat and then they went to bed. My mom’s house is not quite big enough for the nine people who were there, but she figured it out. We had a bedroom, as did Donovan and the kids shared a room. Russ slept in a blow up mattress just in the dining room and Morgan slept on the sofa.
We didn’t end up going to bed until after 2 am. I woke up at 5 am as did Millie. Jack was awake by 6 and so was Stuart. We had to just keep quiet until everyone was awake. Grammie came into the kids’ room, who were on their devices, and had the kids come into her room and wake up Pop. At that point Stuart and I decided we would head to Wal Mart to get some needed items like hangers, small storage bins for our toiletries under the sink, and flavored coffee creamer. The essentials in life cannot be ignored.
We decided to stop and try to get SIM cards for our phones, but nothing was open. We went back to the house and continued to unpack our things. I needed to figure out what else we would need to live in the house with my mom and dad for the next year. It was definitely going to be cozy, but an adventure. Around noon, Russ took us to take the rental car back to the airport. I rode with Russ. We had a good, deep conversation about the Coronavirus situation and it’s effects on all of us for the long term. Obviously, none of us knows the effects, so the world is unsettled at the moment. We went totally against the advice of authorities and traveled outside of the country in efforts to get back ‘home’. Stuart had to get back to the United States because of his green card and we wanted the kids home for the last quarter of the year. But it was starting to look like going back to the UAE would be a long way away.
Once we collected Stuart, we stopped at Target to try to find some little hangers for Millie’s clothes. In the meantime my mom has found the perfect ones. After striking out at Target, we went to get a SIM card for our phones only to discover that Stuart’s relatively new iPhone 11 Pro was a model that was not comparable in the states. Lovely! So I was the only one who ended up with a SIM card. Jack was thrilled as he was told he would get my SIM card when, and if, we returned to the UAE.
I continued to unpack, make calls to get our cars insured, rearrange doctor appointments for the kids and appointments for ourselves. It was like a ghost town around the neighborhood. There was a strange feeling in the air. It was as if no one knew what to do. I had contacted some friends who had decided, and rightfully so, that this wasn’t the time to get together. The fear is not that this virus will kill people, we all know that will happen as do all viruses. The fear is the rate at which it has infected people and that the health care system is being strained by COVID19 as well as all of the other issues with health. By social distancing we can possibly help this thing to even out.
Morgan and Donavin were great playing with the kids in the afternoon. We all decided to go to the park and shoot hoops as well as play our own little game of whiffle ball. Donovan was the pitcher, of course. We played for a little over and hour.
It was a lovely day and we were about the only people at the park.
After dinner, Morgan got a kick out of my humorous little hands.
Once we were home, I struggled to keep my kids awake. I had them shower around 6:30 and then they ate. They both went back to their beds after eating and Jack put himself to bed at about 7:30, which is highly unusual. Jet lag had set it, maybe for all of us. I just prayed they would sleep through the night and get a normal body clock going on Friday.
Stuart and I went to bed at 9 pm and I was awake by 1 am. I decided to get up and do some more work on my online plans. It’s tough to think about what needs to be done for an entire week. Then I wanted to plan realistic things in order to have all children access the work. I went back to sleep around 4:30 am and slept until about 6:30 am. The kids were awake around 3 am, but just watched their iPads so it didn’t bother me much.
Once we were up and around, we said goodbye to Donavin and Morgan, as they were off to Arkansas. We then had some breakfast and headed to the playground. It seems outdoor activities are acceptable during this time of crisis. The kids played ball for a while and I sat and talked with Grammie, while Pop and Uncle Russ coaches Jack.
I did some more organizing and we went out and bought a few needed items for the kids’ bedrooms. We had a bite to eat before venturing out into the great unknown. Once we returned from our Target run, we went back to the park. Okay, I’m pretty sure the kids will let anyone take them to that park at any given time of the day. Jack was instructed in basketball and Millie shot and kicked a playground ball around.
We had fajitas for dinner and then the kids hit the sack. They are still a bit jetlagged, so they nearly put themselves to bed. We stayed up and watched the game show channel. Who knew this existed? Stuart went to bed a bit early, but I made it, asleep on the sofa of course, until 10 pm. I still woke up at 1 am for a few hours, and Stuart was up by 4 am watching the Walking Dead.
Saturday morning I hit a bit of a panic as I thought I hadn’t sent the QR codes for the online teaching that would start for us at 9 pm Saturday evening. In the end, I realized I had actually sent them home the Thursday we broke up from school. Whew!
Most of the day, Stuart and I worked on our presentations for a while and then we decided to go to our storage unit, as Stuart had to find our filing cabinet that had his social security card in it. He needed that to renew his expired driving license.
After the storage unit we swung by the house to get Jack and Pop. We decided to go find bikes for the kids. We went to Target and Wal Mart. Of course Millie wanted one at Target and Jack wanted one at Wal Mart. Once we were home with the bikes the kids wanted to ride them down to the park.
The new bikes!
Millie met a little friend there who was 3 years younger than she was, but just about as big. Jack just wanted to practice his basketball skills. Russ left around 5 pm then I organized Jack’s room as he was going to be staying in the room Russ had slept in. Stuart sat up his PS4, which thrilled him. He had two friends from the UAE who had sent him an Amazon gift card. So with that money, he was able to buy a small television. He was able to play some games with his friends in the UAE on Saturday.
With the kids not being able to go to school at the moment, this social time with family has been great. Millie will start online work next week because her teachers have not deleted her from the programs. But Jack will have to rely on all of us to supply work for him until we leave, and then it will be up to Grammie and Pop.
When Pop got home from the airport, we had dinner. Both kids were about to fall asleep in their meal. Jack ended up showering after dinner and then putting himself to bed around 8 pm. Millie fell asleep on the sofa directly after we ate. Poor kids are still suffering a bit.
Stuart and I made some videos for the kids for their lessons and explained how the activities would work. It was all going to be a bit of an experiment, I’m afraid. We started our online activities before 9 pm, which was before 8 am UAE time on Sunday. We had a number of questions and a lot of confused people. But I feel I answered questions as best as I could. I stayed up until nearly 1 am, but Stuart was up later than I was. I’m hoping we aren’t doing this each evening, but it’s possible as we still have a job to do. Time will tell, I suppose.
As we move into our new week, I reflect on what we have learned from the Covid19 virus to date. First of all, we can live without sporting events on a large scale. It is possible to stay home and spend time with your family without killing each other. And, there are people who love to panic for the sake of panicking. The virus is serious and we must use precautions, but we must also be realistic about living our lives and being sensible. This too shall pass, and hopefully sooner than later as not to do a great deal of damage on society as a whole, both physically and financially. Everyone continue to wash your filthy hands and don’t lick the Wal Mart counter tops.
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