We got the positive test result for Jack. He cried and so did I. I had to figure out how to tell my niece that we would not be able to come to her wedding. She has always been like my first born. We have a very close bond and this was crushing me. I called my brother and asked his advice. He was disappointed we were t able to come but obviously more worried that Jack was positive. My niece was at her ‘first dance’ class and would be back home in the late afternoon. I FaceTimed her when she got home. I started by asking her how her dance class was. I then broke down and told her the story. I cried and she cried. Then she kept saying, ‘I’m not mad, Aunt D. We knew this could happen when we decided to go ahead with the wedding after Covid had begun.’ I was so sad and so hoping I also tested positive as Jack felt it was his fault we were not going to the wedding. That was why Stuart, Millie and I went to get tested Sunday afternoon. I started to feel feverish, but Stuart and Millie felt fine. Millie cried during the test. I will admit it was most unpleasant.
Monday the kids did a whole lot of nothing. We were all stuck at home together. I was considered the primary care person for Jack and because Millie was exposed, she had to stay home whether she was positive or not. Their teachers were sending homework home that afternoon. Jack was feeling better, but Millie had a low grade fever and was complaining of a sore throat.
Tuesday the kids did their school work and were a bit low key. Millie and I got our test results and we were both positive. Stuart got his results and he was negative. We had all been wearing masks around Jack since he went for his test the previous Friday, but I never dreamed one of us would test negative. When we found out we had tested positive, Millie and I could start going without our masks around Jack, but we would put them on when Stuart got home.
Wednesday I went to our house in the afternoon. The kids were absolutely rotten and no help at the house, even though I had things for them to do. It was so frustrating. I worked on the kitchen while they goofed around.
Thursday I woke up nauseous and with a pounding headache I could not rid myself of. It was by far my worst I had felt. The kids were left to their own devices. I have no idea what they did all day, because most of it I was in bed. Tim Tharlson, by way of Sue’s ordering of the food, dropped off delightful burritos that Stuart and Jack loved. I didn’t eat one on that day as I just couldn’t, but I did have one the following day and they were fantastic. Sue was super thoughtful to put a cheese quesadilla in for our picky eater. When Stuart got home from school he called the nurse line for me as we were both worried about how poorly I felt. The nurse told me to put a cold pack on my neck and make sure I drank Gatorade or something with electrolytes in it. I did as I was told and actually got to feeling better.
Friday was a totally different day, thank goodness. The kids cooperated and got their work done for school.
Millie was dressed and ready to go the ‘dress’ reveal. Morgan had planned to FaceTime us and we would get to see her dress before the wedding. Since we weren’t going to be able to be at the wedding, we decided to get dressed up and were going to have a celebration anyway.
Handsome as ever.
We were dressed and anxious to see the beautiful bride.
And she was breath taking! Of course Millie and I cried when we saw her on FaceTime. She was absolutely stunning. It reminded us again how sad we were that we couldn’t be there for her big day.
Saturday we headed to the house to paint Millie’s room. She wanted pink, so she got pink. It took Saturday and Sunday, but she loved it, even the parts I messed up. Her exact words were, ‘Mom, I love the corner where it looks bubbly. Very cute!’ She does have a way to make others’ mistakes less monumental, bless her. Stuart had tested on Wednesday again as he was sure he wouldn’t escape this virus. So Saturday afternoon he got his second test results which came back positive. Well, the Rona had hit us all now. We spent Saturday and Sunday at the house, painting and getting things cleaned. Since we were closed down to our house, there wasn’t much else to do.
Monday I took Jack to school and painted his room. Millie did some live meets with her class and was felling relatively good. I was much better as well. Stuart was now home with us and we were one big infected family.
Since Jack had gone to school, I had told his coach that he would also be returning to basketball. I informed the academy on Saturday. During practice I got a message on the basketball group that simply said ‘It’s only been a week’, then shortly after that one there was a message that said ‘sorry, wrong group’. There is no question that message was about Jack’s return. The Maricopa County Health Department has certain flowcharts that tell when people can return to normal activities after Covid, and Jack had met the criteria. Well, wouldn’t you know, instead of being proactive and addressing the situation with the academy as a whole, the academy said nothing. Therefore parents questioned why Jack was at practice. I contacted the coach and the person who runs the academy to inform them we were following the flowchart. The owner said he would handle things. Then he changed his mind. We went back and forth about whether Jack could come to practice or not. Fair was fair and just because he hadn’t been proactive didn’t mean my child had to be punished. It fired me up for sure. In the end, the owner said he would send the matrix out to parents and Jack could come to practice.
On the way to school on Tuesday I let Jack know that under no circumstances would I ever leave him out in the cold. I would always stand up for what was right and just, and what this coach was trying to do was not right and just. I had sent the Home Isolation Guidelines to the coach and Tuesday afternoon the entire academy received them. Because I was out of quarantine, I went to practice with Jack to at least be able to discuss his situation with anyone who wanted to discuss it. I even brought some copies of the guidelines. I was hopeful that people had read the guidelines and finally understood. Not one person asked a thing. There was no drama.
Wednesday we all had the day off. I ran around buying all kinds of stuff for our house. We went to the storage unit and although we didn’t go to the house because the painters were supposed to be there and Stuart was still contagious, we did some things around Grammie and Pop’s house to get prepared for the move. And, because we were nearly clear of Covid, naturally we should get puppies. Great idea! The kids were so excited as they thought we would not be able to get dogs until after Christmas.
These puppies meant that we had to move into our house, or at least one person had to. We volentold Stuart that he was the winner. Wednesday evening I took the kids back to Grammie and Pop’s to shower and go to bed. I showered as well and then went to our house so Stuart could come back to Grammie and Pop’s to have a shower.
Thursday three of four of us went to school. I dropped the kids at Kid’s Express and then headed to my school. I was so tired all day long. I definitely was not over this thing, but apparently I wasn’t contagious any longer. I picked the kids up after school and we headed home. I went, yet again, with Jack to basketball. It seems all drama had gone away.
Finally it was the last day of the week, thank goodness. The kids spent the night at the house with Stuart and the dogs, while I remained at Grammie and Pop’s. We pulled mattresses in Millie’s room as her room was the only one that was completely finished being painted. The painters had come on Thursday and Friday and had painted the common areas except for the little hallway they forgot that is down towards Millie’s room. I called and left a message for the company but knew I wouldn’t hear anything until Monday.
Saturday morning we were up and headed to storage. Ken came to help us bring some things from our storage unit. This was the day we were to get all our things out of storage, but with it being Stuart’s first day out of quarantine we decided it was best to hold off until the 21st of November. From the storage unit, we got a lot of kitchen stuff and the sofa, well not the cushions. We got lunch and then Ken left. Stuart and I carried on getting the house in order. We worked until the late afternoon and then rested for the evening.
Sunday I finally finished painting Jack’s room. I tried to stall a bit longer, but I knew that if I didn’t get it done on Sunday, his room wouldn’t be ready for his stuff to move in on Saturday. Our evenings are so packed and I knew not much work would happen during the week because of our Uber service we run for our kids. We spent the rest of Sunday continuing to work on getting all of our things in their correct places. It was a bit difficult without furniture.
Monday we were all back at school. After school I picked the kids up as Stuart had a class. We were all now staying at the house, but I was still bringing things back and forth from my mom and dad’s house, mainly laundry. Jack had basketball, but Stuart took him and I carried on with the kitchen and the things from the other house.
Tuesday was school as usual and Millie got to go to her new gymnastics class. She was so excited and the coach was very complimentary of her. I dropped Jack at basketball and headed to buy a few things for the house. He was fine with me but being at his practice, which was a relief as I really needed to get some things done.
Wednesday we didn’t have to taxi kids anywhere, which was nice. So we spent the evening unpacking boxes and trying to sort out our lives. It was becoming a bit difficult as our washer and dryer were still in storage, but we did our best to manage.
Thursday Millie was back at gymnastics. We all met up at Kona Grill to have a bite to eat before her class. I then took Millie to gymnastics and dropped her off. We needed laundry baskets so I went to Tuesday Mornings to have a bit of a shop. I picked her up and we headed home. Stuart took Jack to basketball while I stayed home and put Millie to bed.
Friday was the last day of one of the longest week I’ve had in a while. I was still not terribly well, so getting up to go to school was a challenge all week. At the end of the day, I went to Costco to find some toilet paper. It seems with the rise of Covid again, there is a rush on toilet paper again. I bought some but it wasn’t much at all. Stuart and the kids had also stopped at Wal Mart and bought some treasured toilet paper along with some other necessities.
I got home and we cleared some space in the garage for the rest of our things that would be coming from storage the following day. I spent some of the evening watching television as well. We were all a bit tired.
We got up Saturday morning at 6:00 am. I ran to my mom’s to change out laundry and then I went to get donuts for the crew that were going to help us with our storage unit. Ken and his friend, Jason, arrived just before 9 am. I sent them on to the storage and waited for Jack and Brady, teenage boys of two of my friends. When they showed up, they both got in my car as did Millie. I really didn’t think we would use the entire 26 foot truck, but boy was I wrong. Had we not had those teenage boys I am not sure we could have actually lifted some of the things. They were a great deal of help.
Once everything was unloaded, just before noon, then the real work began. Millie was a great deal of help all day, but Jack wasn’t quite as involved and to us it was more frustrating to yell at him rather than have him stay occupied with his play station. Lazy parenting? Yes, indeed. We worked hard for the rest of the evening and made some good headway. However, it still felt the boxes were unending.
Sunday morning we were up and at it again. At 10:30 am I went to visit my friend Julie. Her son passed away a month ago and I needed to go and hug her. We talked for 4 hours and probably would have carried on, but her bishop showed up unannounced, so I knew there was something she needed to take care of as she is the president of the women’s relief society at her church. We had such a wonderful time. We laughed and cried and sorted out the world in our own way. She has always been such a dear friend. When I got home I tried to sort out some more boxes but wasn’t terribly inspired. The rest of the day was spent getting laundry done and beds made.
Monday morning we had decided to wedge the dogs’ cage in the sliding glass door and leave them outside. Did we think about the fact that they would chew the air conditioning insulation? Nope. But did they? Yep. Fortunately they didn’t bite through the wires so the AC still worked. We’ve had dogs do that before. Who thought these puppies were a good idea?
Monday after school I met Stuart and his teammates, who happen to be my friends as well, at a local happy hour place. We got home just before 6 pm to see the air conditioner carnage. Stuart took Jack to basketball and then went to collect things for our Thanksgiving parties in class. Millie went to bed with little fuss. Jack showered when he got home and had a snack, then went to bed. I fell asleep on the sofa and woke up just as Stuart was turning the television off. I popped up and went to bed as well.
Our bed was finally a reasonable height. We got a bed set for our bedroom, so when the box spring was on it, there was no way I could hop up into bed. The first night I went to bed much later than Stuart and I’m sure it was comical seeing me attempt to climb the mountain we referred to as our bed. The following morning Stuart went to Lowe’s to get a piece of plywood cut to fit over the slats so that we could just put down the mattress. Then on Tuesday morning we decided our mattress was crap and we needed a new one.
After school Stuart brought Millie to me and he went to buy a mattress. Yahoo! After Millie was finished with gymnastics we headed home and she had her counseling session in the car. It’s not ideal, but I do think the counseling is helping her. She is a smart girl and is doing her best to apply the things she talks about with Hanna, her counselor. Her outbursts are fewer and she is starting to use her skills to her advantage.
When I got home I took Jack to basketball and went on a search for some throw pillows for the loft day beds. Of course I couldn’t find any. I did find many other things we didn’t need, but no throw pillows. I picked Jack up at 8:30 and he was, yet again, discouraged about the basketball academy he attends. He is upset that he takes things so seriously and other kids good off, therefore causing everyone to run sprints. Then he feels that their instruction doesn’t ever get to be practiced on Tuesdays and Thursdays as they don’t play an actual game on those nights. I would guess we will look for a new club in the spring. This club has definitely been a God send, but it may be time to find something that fits Jack’s personality and drive a bit more. We shall see. I continue to tell him to hang in there and things will work out.
We didn’t have school on Wednesday in preparation for Thanksgiving. We were planning to go to Ken and Maytee’s for Thanksgiving and Stuart was making banoffee pies for the occasion. He had boiled the condensed milk to make the toffee on Tuesday evening. We spent the day continuing to sort things out. We implored the kids to be of great help by going with us to Grammie and Pop’s to finish getting our things from their house. I didn’t realize how much crap we had accumulated in 8 months. It seemed more tedious to get our stuff from their house than it did getting stuff from storage. Once the kids had helped pack the car, they came back to our house and decorated the tree. To be honest, that was a huge help to me. It turned out amazing.
We spent the rest of the day cleaning my mom and dad’s house. Once it was clean we came back to the house and carried on with the endless sorting that needed to be done. Stuart rearranged the garage stuff so we had a wall of garage sale stuff and the shelves in the garage were clear to start stacking stuff on. That evening, after taking Millie for two fillings and a tooth extraction, I went to meet up with the Becks and a former student from when I taught in a charter school in the late 90s. Josh was a delightful young man whose mother was a solid rock. Sadly, she passed away from breast cancer before Josh and his brother were even out of high school. She left an amazing legacy.
Thursday we headed to Ken and Maytee’s around 10 am. Everyone else showed up by 11:30 am and we had a delicious lunch. All the main staples were there. The turkey was amazing and the pies were to die for. We had a great time and although the Greens are not blood relatives, they are still family.
Banoffee pies!
Maytee, Ken and Yolanda made the day perfect for all of us.
Friday morning we got up and hustled around the house to make things a bit less cluttered, as Russ, Julie and Emily were coming to see us. They had driven Morgan’s car to Yuma, her new home with her husband Donovan. They were heading to our house for the day and then were to fly out on Saturday afternoon.
They arrived around 10:30 am and dropped their bags at Grammie and Pops. Then they came to our house for coffee and then some lunch.
Emily fell in love with the puppies.
The kids were so excited to see Emily. We had a wonderful time just sitting around and chatting. We had sandwiches for lunch and Stuart and I decided that we really needed them to come this day as it forced us to really get our butts in gear and sort out the rest of the house. We still had bits here and there, but now it was just the tedious stuff.
Once we had eaten lunch we headed to the Black Friday sales at Arizona Mills Mall. We went to Dick’s Sporting Goods first where we scored on some new shoes for Millie and a couple of pair of sweatpants for Jack, although he chose not to go shopping with us. He was going to need some warm pants for the winter, and especially for when we go to Missouri in December. We found some other treasures and were thrilled with our purchases. We headed back to the house and picked Jack up. We then took Russ to Oreganos fir his 60th birthday. It’s hard to believe I have a brother who is 60. Time is such a strange thing.
Saturday we got up and made eggs, bacon and roast potatoes. Russ, Julie and Emily came down for breakfast and spent the morning with us. Emily played basketball all morning with Jack and our new neighbors.
Breakfast was yummy!
Such fun!
Russ, Julie and Emily left just before noon. Stuart, Millie and I went shopping for some additional Christmas lights. Millie and I also went to Justice, a girls’ clothing shop that is going out of business. We got Millie a ton of clothes for about 60% off their original price. We also bought the dogs a dog house.
When we got home we continued to sort out stuff and get ready for our guests for the evening. Tim and Sue were coming for dinner and Tim was going to help Stuart put in a dog door. They arrived just before 5 pm and we sat and had a good chat. Boy, I miss my walking buddy. There was so much to catch up on. The dog door construction caused one of my kaleidoscopes to fall off the cabinet. They were cutting on the wall where the kaleidoscopes were and the vibration caused one to fall. Fortunately it didn’t break. After the construction was over, we spent some time trying to get the dogs to use said doggy door. They were not impressed.
We ate and then had dessert. We retired to the sitting room (have always wanted to say that) and then Tim and Sue left. It was a great evening with great friends. Sure is due to get her boot off on Tuesday, so I’m hopeful our walking can resume soon. The rest of our evening was spent in front of the television watching the new season of The Crown. It’s been a crazy month for sure. Here is to the new month of December.
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