I kinda thought we'd be better at covid

Hey, covid didn't kill us. We are still alive.  But as soon as I got better from Covid I was deep into Birth-o-ween. So I haven't had a moment to update this blog. 

I'm going to try to do a quick update about our week with Covid. Then I'll do another post about Birth-o-ween and post covid life. 

Already our week with COVID is starting to fade in my memory as "that week in October when everything stopped."

But before it fades too much I want to write down a few memories. 

The main memory is that I felt like we weren't doing it right. I'm not sure what I thought having Covid would be like, but I guess I thought I'd be better at keeping our family unified through it. I guess I had a vague idea of a structured movie marathon, or reading books together.  Or just snuggling up together. But really I just kind of disappeared into a fog for several days and barely checked on my kids. 

I mean, I was there, and they were there, but we weren't really there together. Derrick and I spent nearly a whole day sitting on the couch. I was working on my computer and he was watching Youtube on his Chromebook. The girls were down in the basement watching something on the TV down there. We were just in our own worlds for several days. 

Eventually things got a little more structured. We did eventually watch the first two X-Men movies. And we did start having dinner together. But mostly we were dong our own things. 

Here are some other memories. 

1. For the most part we were just tired. Really really tired. Everyone had some combination of sore throats, headaches, fevers, coughs, loss of taste and smell, nausea, and other symptoms. But being tired is what I remember the most. 

2. Veronica and I lost our sense of taste and smell.  I could still taste, but I couldn't smell. I think it was the opposite for her.  We figured it out when we were trying to eat something.  She kept telling me that it tasted funny. I could barely taste it. 

3. I felt like I was at one end of a tunnel and everything else was on the other end. When I talked to Brandon or the kids it took me a while to figure out what they were saying and how to respond. Anything I did seemed to take extra effort.  Sometimes the tunnel felt shorter and I was able to interact better, but other times it felt very long. 

4. I was able to work from home the whole time. For some reason my brain wasn't slow when I was typing or working on my computer (or maybe the slow response just wasn't noticeable.) So I had no problem working from home.  And THANK GOODNESS I have a job that allows me to do that. I had to sneak into my office a few times to pick up papers and to check the mail, but I was able to do everything else from home. And in some ways I was actually MORE productive than I would have been otherwise. There was a spreadsheet that I've needed to redesign for a while, but I've been putting it off. While I was sick I was like, "Well what else am I going to do. I'm already sitting here, in my pajamas, with no distractions."  So I got the spreadsheet all updated. 

5. No one was hungry. We still ate, but it was only a little bit. The kids mostly ate snacks. I'm not sure what I was eating - probably cereal. On Wednesday Brandon made us pizza so the kids would at least eat something. They each had like a piece. On Thursday I made a really yummy stew that took all my energy to make, but was worth it. 

6. Brandon never got sick. He avoided the house as much as possible and wore a mask most of the time he was in the house. He slept in the tent in the back yard on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. He said that was fun. On Thursday night the forecast called for rain so he took down the tent and slept in our guest bedroom.  He stayed down there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. 

It's a good thing he didn't get sick.  He had his last three performances of Guys and Dolls.  He LOVED that play so much. He was happy to finish it out.  And since there was nothing going on at home he went to all the after parties and had a blast. 

7. Nyquil was our best friend. Every night Brandon would give me and the kids a full dose of Nyquil. Everyone slept so well. Derrick slept in my bed the first few nights. He snored a lot - which I don't think he normally does. 

8. Charlotte and Lydia never tested positive. They were both sick, and I gave them each at least 3 at home tests, but we never got a positive result. I was trying to get a positive so they could have a medical excuse for their school absences. I even took them to get tested at the clinic at the hospital. That test came out negative too. So I'm not sure what happened there. 

They were able to get caught up on school pretty fast so the medical excuse didn't really matter.  And because they never tested positive the school couldn't make them wear a mask when they went back to school on Monday.  So I guess that was good.

9. We actually picked a good time to get sick. It was parent teacher conference week so there was only three days of school. That means the kids only missed three days rather than 5. And we were better by Halloween. 

10. We did have to cancel the Harry Potter experience. I'd been hoping that at least some of the kids could go. In theory Veronica could have attended with a mask. But on Wednesday I made the difficult call to cancel the whole thing. Veronica still wasn't feeling well - especially in the evenings. And the whole event would take place in the evening. So I gave all our tickets to Charlotte and Lydia's best friends and their family.  They had a great time so I'm glad someone was able to enjoy it.  

11. In some ways it was really nice to just drop everything for a week. After I was feeling a little better I was like, "can we plan to get covid for a week every year?"  It was just nice to be able to sleep as much as I wanted and not feel guilty about it. Or to stay in my pajamas all week without worrying about anyone seeing me. 

12. I thought I did a pretty good job of staying on track of the real world while also being sick. But I keep discovering things I forgot. I received our water bill this week and it was twice as big as normal.  I was like, "Did we have a leak in a pipe."  And then I realized. "Oh I forgot to pay it!" The due date had been October 17th which was the same day I tested positive.  I also forgot our electric bill and our internet. 

Okay, let's look at some pictures. 

I took these on Sunday  October 16th the day before I tested positive. I came home from Utah and checked on my berries. There were so many ripe ones. 

Here I am, Hillary had toned my hair that morning. It was kind of strange being SUPER blond while I was sick. I felt terrible, and yet my hair made me look more put together than I felt 

While we were in Utah Brandon made and canned salsa. 

Here's the initial round of tests on Monday morning. 

Here's the picture I took at the hospital when we were trying to get a positive test result for Charlotte and Lydia. They were so tired. I still can't believe their tests came out negaitve.

It took until Wednesday for the kids to feel well enough to start fighting over what they wanted to watch on TV.  But for the most part they were all pretty chill about watching things. They spent a lot of time watching America's Funniest Videos. Derrick watched a lot of Youtube. Here are all the kids watching Youtube with Derrick. I think this was Thursday.

On Friday we were all feeling well enough that it was time to get OUT of the house. We went for a drive to Murtaugh Lake. Derrick was so excited to throw rocks in the water. But it turns out the water levels are super low. 

The dock was resting on mud.

This is the boat ramp. The kids had fun walking in the mud.

There was a crawdad in the puddle that the kids were trying to catch.

Veronica had fun down there for a while.

Here's me. 

The kids in the mud again.

The water was still on at the park so we were able to get everyone mostly washed off before they got in the car.  Derrick's pants were so muddy I made him take them off and change into some of the back up pants I keep in the car.  I wrapped his muddy pants in a travel blanket and rinsed them with the hose when we got home. 

That night Brandon went to do the play. The kids and I stayed home and watched the first X-men movie. 

Lydia and Charlotte had been playing with Legos of and on all week.  They added onto their amusement park. 

Lydia also hand sewed a quilt for her barbie. 

Look how cute it looks. 

Oh and here's our stack of covid tests.  This was the result of trying to get a positive result for Charlotte and Lydia. 

I'd felt pretty good on Friday so I assumed Saturday would be a good day too, but I regressed a lot on Saturday.  I ended up going back to my room and sleeping for a long time on Saturday.

One of the sadder parts of the week was when we had to postpone the Twin's Halloween/Birthday party. It was supposed to be on Saturday. I was able to contact the people who had RSVP'd and let them know the party would be the NEXT weekend.  But some people never RSVP'ed.  So we put this sign on the door in case they showed up. 

Brandon had his play again on Saturday night and so the kids and I watched X2. 

Here's more berries I harvested. I think this was the biggest one day harvest. I put them all in the freezer and will make jam later when things calm down after Halloween.

Here's the peach tree.

This is the red oak. It's so pretty.

Since I'd been down on Saturday I felt like I was important to get back on top of things on Sunday. So we cleaned up the house and did a lot of laundry on Sunday.  I stripped the kids bedding off their beds and washed it all.  There was such a huge pile bedding on the laundry room floor.  I got through most of it that day. 

We also cleaned up the living room a bit. Derrick found his snap circuit and played with that for a while. 

 Brandon had his play again on Sunday afternoon. When it was over they had to break down the set and he stayed for that. He was very sad when the whole thing was over. 

He came home and told us they were going to do the Music Man in the spring. Then he sang all sorts of songs from that play. I was like, "when was the last time you saw that play." He was like, "Oh when Melanie was in it in Highschool" (Which means like over 25 years ago.) I told him, "Okay you are obviously doing that play."  The fun thing about Music Man is that it has roles for children.  So some of our kids might do it with Brandon.

While Brandon was gone the kids and I watched church via zoom. The audio quality is always a little off.  During the closing song the microphone was picking up some lady singing and she sounded a lot like Miss Piggy.  I didn't say anything, but after a little while Derrick said, "Mom, it sounds like Miss Piggy!: We laughed and laughed.  I'm sure she has a lovely singing voice in real life. 

We all went to bed on Sunday night fully planning to re-enter reality on Monday morning - well most of us. Derrick wouldn't wear a mask so he wasn't going back to school until Thursday.  And I still had a cough so I was going to keep working from home.  But Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica were going back. 

On Monday morning I helped Veronica get ready for school and then walked her to school.  This was October 24th.  The last time I'd walked with her to school was October 13th. She'd been wearing shorts when I walked her to school on the 13th.  This time it was dark and windy.  We were both wearing winter coats. I was like "What happened!"

The quarter had ended on October 13th so the kids had all missed the first three days of second quarter.  This was a non-issue for most things. But Lydia is in an elective class that rotates every quarter.  She'd started out in a keyboarding class and was now going to be in gym.  She was nervous about gym as it was, but knowing that she'd missed the first three days made her really nervous. 

I was also worried about how she seemed to be handling Middle School in general. In elementary Charlotte had always been the anxious one, but Charlotte was doing well with Middle School while Lydia always seemed to be worrying about things. 

She'd been super emotional on Sunday night and the only solution I could think of was to talk to the school counselor.  

So on Monday I drove Charlotte and Lydia to school and we all went into the office together.  I told the front office lady. "I have like 3 separate questions to ask."

1. I needed to know if Charlotte and Lydia had to wear masks.  The answer was that since they'd never tested positive they didn't have to wear masks.  

2. Lydia wanted to know if she missed getting a locker in gym. The answer was probably not.

3. I asked if we could set up an appointment with the counselor. The office lady ended up checking to see if the counselor was there and had us go meet with her real quick. 

It was such a good little meeting.  She assured Lydia that lots of kids have trouble transitioning to Middle School and that she was there to help. She called over to the gym and confirmed that Lydia hadn't missed getting a locker and that she didn't need gym clothes that day. 

Lydia had been concerned about failing 6th grade.  It was a completely unfounded worry, but it was something she was worrying about anyway. I kept telling her that it would be fine, but since I didn't know the policies of this school I couldn't give her concrete answers. So I asked the counselor to tell us what would happen if Lydia failed a class.  The counselor told us all about make up work, and summer school. I think the most reassuring thing she told Lydia was, "You would have to fail 5 classes to not pass 6th grade." Lydia realized that she was in no danger of not passing 6th grade. 

We made an appointment for another check in later that week and Lydia went to class.  I went home feeling super grateful for school counselors.  They really are the best. 

I also kind of laughed. I'd hoped that I could fly under the radar at the Middle School this year.  I wasn't planning on getting to know the front office staff or the counselors until Derrick goes there next year.  But I guess that was an unrealistic goal. 

And that pretty much sums up our week with COVID.

And like I said, we rolled right into Birth-o-ween.  So stay tuned for that. 

Thanks for reading. 

Oops

That title will make a lot more sense by the end of this post. 

This last week was a good week full of some great moments.  So let's go through them. 

Monday was a federal holiday.  The kids and Brandon still had school and work. But the banks and post offices were closed so I didn't really need to go to work. I was planning to go in anyway because I had a lot to catch up on (and I was planning to take Friday off). 

Well that plan changed before 9:00 am.  Lydia called me from school and needed to come home. I was so happy that my life is set up in a way that I could be there to get her within a few minutes of her call. I have no idea what things would have been like if I'd had a full time job across town or something like that. 

I brought Lydia home and we both chilled out most of the day.  I updated the blog. It was a nice day. 

But by the end of the day I was a little stir crazy.  I went for a walk after dinner to get out of the house. 

Tuesday I made up for not being at work on Monday.  I went in around 11:00 to get ready for admin meeting at 12:00.  Then I stayed and covered front desk from 1:00 to 5:00. I was able to get a lot done. 

Lydia was home again on Tuesday and spent a lot of time finishing the costume for her dad Barbie.  It's a Mandalorian. 

When Brandon was done with work he had an appointment with our very first NEW customer.  This was a customer that wasn't a friend or a friend of a friend. This guy had called Bish's RV to schedule a winterization and they had a 6 month waiting list.  (Yes, you read that right, it would be spring before he could get in for a winterization.)  Brandon had previously dropped off his business cards at Bish's RV and they said they'd give them out.  Well Bish's gave Brandon's number to this guy and the guy called Brandon.  Brandon went right over there and got him all winterized.  Yay!

That evening Lydia and I went to pick berries at a giant raspberry plant that grows on the side of the road on a street that I drive down often.  I think the only people that care about this bush are some kids that walk by after school and me. I'm always eyeing it when I drive by.  I decided that it was time to go harvest berries from it.  So Lydia and I walked over there and picked a whole bunch of berries. I'm going to add them to my berries when I make my long anticipated raspberry jam. 

On Wednesday I dropped Charlotte and Lydia off at school and then drove straight to my office. I had a work training at 9:00. We are working with another company for a very specific thing that has to do with billing.  The other company had three people on a zoom call for my training. They walked me through it and it was a good learning experience, but it was kind of awkward to have three people watching my screen while I was walking through the process.  Afterward I realized, "That was the MOST live training I've had at this job."  Everything else my boss either showed me real quick, or I watched a recorded training from the software company, or I just kind of figured out on my own. So yeah, having 3 people watch me to make sure I did a (relatively simple) task was super strange.  

I took a break to go get my flu and covid shots. I was going to come back, but as I was leaving my office I realized that everything I had left to do I could do from home. 

I got in the car to drive over to the Doctor's office.  I started laughing when I heard the song that was on the radio.  It was the song Centerfold.  This is my unofficial Covid Vaccine theme song.  I'd heard it when I was done with my first AND second dose. That alone was a crazy coincidence.  But here it was, playing again as I drove to get my booster. 

The shots went really well. The nurse was SUPER good and neither shot hurt.  The flu one did make my arm sore later. 

I was happy to know I was immunized for fall and winter. 

I'd actually forgot all about making appointments for shots until a few days earlier.  Usually I'm pretty religious about always scheduling flu vaccines in early October. But the weather has been so warm this fall that it just didn't seem like fall yet.  So I didn't even think about vaccines. 

It was Veronica who finally reminded me.  Our conversation went like this:

Veronica: "Mom, it's October. I know you already scheduled my shots and didn't tell me. I'm so nervous about them!"

Me: "Oh, I completely forgot about those.  Thanks for the reminder."

Veronica: "But when are they? I'm so nervous."

Me: "This is literally the first time I've thought about those. I haven't made the appointments yet. Don't worry yet."

Eventually I made the appts for Friday October 21st when the kids would be out of school. Veronica was telling EVERYONE about her shots and how nervous she was. 

I took her to Physical Therapy that afternoon and I heard her telling Mr Spencer while they were walking around practicing her balance. 

About 20 minutes later I got a phone call from St Lukes.  The lady on the phone told me that as of that day the covid vaccines that the kids were scheduled to get were discontinued.  There was a newer version of the pediatric vaccine that had just been approved by the FDA.  The kids would get that shot, but since St Lukes didn't have that version of the vaccine they'd have to cancel the appts and put us on a waiting list until she shots did arrive. 

That was all fine with me, but I was like, "Um what shot did I get today?"  She assured me that I had the most up to date adult vaccine.  I guess this whole process had just happened with the adult vaccines about a month ago.  So I guess it's good I was a little slow to make appointments this year. 

When Veronica finished her appointment I told her, "Guess what!  Your shots got cancelled!"  She was like, "Really!"

She wanted to go to girls activity so I dropped her off at the church after her appt.  Then I ran some errands, stopped at home for a minute, and then went back and got her. 

Here's Lydia's Mandalorian again with his Baby Yoda. 

Before the kids went to bed on Wednesday we had them pack their bags because we were going out of town on Thursday night. The kids didn't have school on Friday and we were going to Utah and staying with my sister Lindsey.  We'd been planning this since around the time school started, but for some reason it just didn't seem real.  I was like, "Oh yeah, we'd better pack."  

I had a lot to do on Thursday. I got up at 6:30 to take a shower.  Then I helped everyone get ready for school.  I walked over to the school with Derrick and Veronica and then came back to finish things with Charlotte and Lydia.  I drove them over to school and dropped them off again.  Then I drove straight to the grocery store and bought a lot of food. 

I dropped the food off at home and put most of it away while eating lunch. 

I rushed to work and did some things there.  

I was planning to take Derrick to speech therapy, but I was realizing that probably wouldn't happen.  I still needed to pack, and I didn't want to sit in an office for an hour and a half while I had stuff to do. So Brandon took Derrick to therapy and I packed my stuff and got the food and things ready for our trip. At one point I saw some cough syrup in the cupboard.  I thought for a second about packing it and some other medicine, but I was like, "No one is sick.  I don't need that."

At some point I made sure to water everything really well.  Normally I've been doing that on Saturdays, but we'd be gone on Saturday. 

Here are the tomatoes.  We haven't had a frost yet so they are still doing amazing. 

My Rose of Sharron is also still flowering. 

And look at our fun Halloween decorations. 

The hollyhock has had some problems this year, but it has a few good blooms. 

Brandon came home from therapy with Derrick.  Derrick had done really well.  I made quesodillas for dinner so we ate those fast. The kids and I said goodbye to Brandon and we drove down to Utah. 

The drive was GREAT.  This was our first long drive with all four kids in the new van.  They loved having space.  Usually Derrick starts complaining about his squished feet.  This time I asked him, "How are your legs?"  And he said, "Great!"

We were staying the night with my sister Hillary.  But she wouldn't be done with hair school until later that evening.  Lagoon was open until 11:00 so the kids and I decided that stopping by Lagoon on our way to Hillary's would be a great idea. 

We got there just before 8:00 and walked into a magical land. Everything was decorated so fun. 

Frightmares was going strong.  Our first stop was all the fun Halloween things that we'd skipped when we were here for Veronica's birthday. 

Here we are on the Pumpkin Walk.

This tunnel was FULL of pumpkins. 

Then we went to Scary and Crows Straw Maze in Pioneer Village. 

It was decorated really cute, but my phone doesn't take the best night pictures. 

The kids liked posing with these signs. 

Charlotte liked this dynomite. 

Here's Derrick. 

And Veronica. Veronica had what I call a "seal cough" as soon as we walked into the park. I figured the smoke machines were just making her cough and didn't think much of it. 

Here are the kids posing in jail.

The maze ended with a carnival game. 

Pioneer Village was like a whole different experience at night.  We noticed this barn for the first time. 

And another building had a whole mini model of a circus.  I literally never knew this was there.

Then we went to the "Treat Street."  There were little booths and the kids got a little toy or candy at each booth.  

It was pretty cute. 

This was done in the Lagoona beach area.  But it felt completely different. 

After that the kids found a dungeon.

The last thing we did was the Spook-a-boo.  Everything we'd done was geared toward little kids and this one was probably the most juvenile of all. Charlotte and Lydia were nearly rolling their eyes the whole time. But all was forgiven at the end when a lady dressed as a pirate let the kids pick out a large gem.  They were in LOVE with the Spook-a-boo after that. 

All the little toys and candies gave us a bit of a problem. We had no where to put them and that meant we couldn't go on any of the big crazy rides. So we decided to just do the calmer kids rides.  That actually made the evening really fun. 

Here we are in line for Bombora. Most of the "big" rides still had long lines.  But it was late enough that the "kids" rides had shorter lines. 

After Bombora we did the Egg Drop. 

There were still a few kids in line for this ride so I didn't ride because I wanted to give them a chance to be on the ride. I got a fun video of the kids on that. Notice that the leaves are changing colors on the tree. When we first came here in March these trees didn't have leaves.  And now they were getting ready to fall. 

Then we went on the Jumping Dragon.  (It really spins so I don't know why they call it the Jumping Dragon.)

I sat behind Derrick and Veronica and took this fun picture of them before it started. 

You can kind of see Charlotte and Lydia on the other side of the dragon's head.

We went on the Egg Drop again. I sat by Veronica and we screamed each time it dropped.  We had so much fun.

Then we went on Tital Wave. I was able to get this picture of all 5 of us before it started. We had a blast on that ride.  Everyone was screaming and laughing. 

The kids were all saying we should do it again and we were going to and then I looked at Veronica and she was crying.  I was like, "What happened?"  She said, "I'm not feeling well."

This was EXACTLY what happened with her birthday trip. She'd been super happy and then BAM suddenly she was tired and sad. 

I was like, "we'll go soon, let's just let the big kids go on one more ride."  I think we planned to do the colossus, but as we walked over there the kids noticed that the Wild Mouse had a short line.  So Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick ran to do that while Veronica and I sat at a table. 

They rode the ride and then ran around again to do it again.  

Then they went to ride it a third time.  Veronica wanted to give it a try so she and I ran and got into line.  We had a blast on the ride and I was thinking that maybe things would be better for her after this.  But when the ride was over she started crying again.  She said the ride had hurt her stomach and she felt like throwing up.  I hurried her over to a garbage can and she really did throw up.  That was new. 

That was a pretty clear sign that it was time to leave.  We started walking out.  The bigger kids wanted to take this picture. 

I texted Hillary and told her we were on our way. Veronica said her throat hurt so I asked her if she had anything for sore throats.  She said she did. 

Hillary did such a good job of taking care of Veronica as soon as we arrived.  She gave her for her throat and her cough, rubbed Tiger Balm behind her ears, diagnosed her with a low fever, and gave her a Liquid IV to drink.  I was like, "WOW."

Hillary said that all of Utah had some sort of cold right now. Joe had been sick for a week and a half and so this was just what she was used to dealing with at this point. 

It was pushing 11:00PM by this point and my kids were tired.  I put the older three to bed on various couches and had Veronica sleep in the guest bed with me. 

She had a rough night, but she actually improved over the night.  I felt her fever break and her cough got better when we opened a window. By morning she was pretty much back to her spunky self.  

We had a chill Friday morning at Hillary's house.  Lydia had been asking to have her bangs dyed blue for a while. I'd told her that we could do it on this trip.  At the last minute she told Hillary, "Actually I want blue tips."  This was a much bigger process and time commitment, but Hillary said okay with out a moments hesitation. 

They started out stripping Lydia's hair color to blond. That alone was a long process.  Then they added two tones of blue hair dye.

I was there for this whole process, but looking back I was kind of out of it. I hadn't slept well the night before because I'd been up so much with Veronica.  So I spent at lot of Friday morning laying on Hillary's couch and falling in and out of sleep.

I did log into my work accounts and do about 40 minutes of work.  I'm so happy I have a flexible job. 

We were planning to go back to Lagoon that day, but had a hard time deciding on a time.  Ideally we would have gone at 10:00 when the crowds would (presumably) be smaller. But that didn't happen.  I was thinking of maybe going that evening, but was worried about traffic.  Finally I just made an executive decision and said we'd go when Lydia's hair was done.  That put us at Lagoon at 3:00. 

In retrospect it was a bad time. Parking was terrible! We ended up parking in a grassy field over by Canaballe. (I've never figured out how to spell this word, and I've just given up at this point.)  I had no idea this was even a parking area. Here's the picture I took as we walked back to the entrance. I also inadvertantly got a picture of "why Veronica needs a haircut."

I'd debated even bringing Veronica.  Hillary had offered to let her stay at her house while I took the older kids.  At the last minute Veronica decided to come. 

In retrospect this was another bad idea. She was not feeling well almost as soon as we got into the gates.  We decided the best thing to do was to let the older three kids get in line for Canible while we dropped off the backpack at the picnic area. 

Everyone had to go to the bathroom so we all went to the bathrooms by Cannible. I needed to use the bathroom, but I'm nervous about using the bathroom at the same time as the kids because I don't want Derrick wandering outside the bathroom without an adult.  So I waited for him. 

Then I made sure all the kids got in line.  Veronica and I walked back to the picnic area.  But on the way there I REALLY had to go to the bathroom.  I ended up leaving Veronica and the backpack at a bench and running ahead to the bathroom.  When I came back out Veronica was outside the bathroom. She was crying. She told me, "I thought you didn't care about me."

I was like, "Well yeah, for 3 minutes I cared about my pants more than you, but that's because this whole trip would be ruined if my pants were ruined.  But I really do care about you."

We went back to the Cannable area and got in line for Paratrooper because that's where I'd told the older kids to meet us.  We were about 3 people away from getting on Paratrooper when the older three kids got off the ride.  I told them to go ride the rocket while we did Paratrooper. 

Paratrooper ended up being the BEST ride for us.  It takes a long time to load before it actually gets going.  So Veronica and I could just sit in our little seat and talk for a while. It was so nice to sit.  And when it does get going and spinning it is really fun. We had a good time together. I told Veronica, "even though you aren't feeling well, I'm glad I can spend time with you."

Lydia had texted me that the line for the Rocket was too long.  So they were in line for the Flying Aces. We met them over there.  I got this fun picture of Derrick.  

We were all hungry so we went back to the backpack and had snacks.  

Oh and look, I took pictures of Lydia's hair. It turned out so cute. 

She chased a peacock around for a while. 

Veronica had wanted to ride the spider so we went over there.  We passed the cliff hanger and I took a picture of the skeletons on it. 

This ride had been mostly closed all year.  We'd gone on it early in the season and had basically been stuck on it.  This is how it had felt to be on the ride.

The line for the Spider was super long.  All the lines were long. Veronica was still miserable and this whole trip was feeling a little mis-guided. But it could have been worse - for 30 seconds I had the (terrible) idea to leave the older three at the park, drive Veronica back to Hillary's, pick up McDonald's on the way back, and then spend the evening with the older three kids. Then I was like, "No that won't work."

The kids had a much better idea.  They were like, "Mom, let's just go back to the kids Halloween stuff."  

So we went back to that area and got in line for Treat Street.  The tiger was across the way and we could see him in his cage. 

Treat street was fun again. Here are the kids examining the dungeon outside of Treat Street. 

We got in line for the Spook-a-boo. Veronica wasn't feeling well so she and I sat down. I realized we were near the picnic area so I went to grab our bag - it had our jackets in case we stayed for the evening.  But that didn't seem like it was going to happen. 

We went through the Spook-a-Boo and got gems again at the end.  THIS is probably the whole reason Veronica came to Lagoon so I'm glad she got hers. 

Derrick had brought his other gem and posed with both of them. 

Here's another look at Lydia's hair. 

Then we went to Pioneer Village to do pressed penny machine over there.  I went into the sandwich shop to get quarters for the pressed penny machine. I'd brought 4 dollars in with me and the employees were so nice to give me change for my dollars.  Then we took turns with the machine.  Normally we just pick one penny design, but I wanted this to represent all of our visits.  So each child got to do a penny at this machine. 

Derrick was the only one who wanted to do the straw maze so he and I went through that again.

Then we started heading out of the park. I love this picture of the kids looking at the Tidal Wave and the Swings. 

We stopped at another penny presser on the Midway and pressed 4 more pennies and then we walked out of the park one last time. 

This had been our last visit to the park this season. We'd gone a total of $12 times and our cost per person by the end was a little over $12 a person. I've loved having a season pass, but it will be a few years before we buy one again.  I want to enjoy some stuff in Idaho for a while. 

The kids were sad about leaving, but I told them "It's not goodbye.  It's just a 'see you later.'"

Here we are going out to our far, far away parking spot. 

And saying goodbye to Cannable. (Dang it, I couldn't even spell it right the last time.)

Back at Hillary's we had dinner and then she went to work on Charlotte's hair. She stripped it that evening and had plans to add the color the next morning. 

Veronica was running a fever again and Hillary gave her some fever reducer.  I went downstairs to lay in bed with her.  

Then Lydia came downstairs and told us that Emily had arrived.

Emily was flying on a midnight flight to Boston for a girls trip with some friends from North Carolina. She drove down and then Hillary would take her to the airport. She had about an hour to hang out with us. So we all had a good time chatting. 

After Emily and Hillary left for the airport I put my kids to bed.  I laid down with Veronica and fell asleep too. 

She ended up having a really rough night.  At one point she was crying and talking in her sleep.  At another point her fever spiked again and I had to go upstairs and find more medicine. 

At another point she was coughing so much she couldn't sleep so we watched Dude Dad videos for an hour. 

In the morning I slept in until 9:00 and when I woke up the house was silent.  I wondered if Hillary had taken all the kids to the park.  Instead Hillary had also had a rough night.  All her kids had been in bed with her.  In the morning she just turned on a movie on her laptop so she could sleep.  And that had kept the little kids (and Derrick who jumped in bed at some point) entertained. 

An earlier version of Saturday had involved us meeting up at the new Kearns Library with my parents at 10:00, but that was NOT happening.  So I asked my parents to just come to Hillary's.  

They came over and we had a fun time visiting.  Hillary took Charlotte and Lydia with her to pick out hair dye colors for Charlotte's hair.  (She'd wanted blue also, but I was like, "PLEASE give us a way to tell you both apart." So Hillary took her to pick out different colors.)

My mom and Penny went too.  

A little after they left Lydia texted me that they had a flat tire.  Joe ended up taking their other car to them and then waiting with the first car for road side assistance. 

So it was all much more exciting than planned. 

My parents left soon after everyone came home I took a nap on the couch.  I'm not sure how long I was asleep. I woke up and decided that it was probably time to get dressed.  So I went downstairs.  I ended up falling asleep on the guest bed for a long time. 

When I woke up I felt AMAZING! Hillary was finishing with Charlotte's hair and was cutting Veronica's. (Veronica had told us repeatedly that all she needed was a haircut to feel better because "people always feel better after haircuts.") I was glad we didn't have to deal with her tangles anymore. 

I ordered pizza for dinner and went to pick it up and also get gas in the car.  

When I got back Hillary had just finished doing AMAZING pictures of the girls' hair.

Here's Charlotte's. Her favorite color is Orange so she went with red and orange. 

It looks like fire. 

It was so pretty.

Here is Lydia's. 

Hillary is so good at this. 

It turned out so well.

And here are both of them together. 

Hillary calls them Fire and Ice.

And after almost 12 years we finally have a way to tell the girls apart. 

We'd been thinking that maybe we'd go home Saturday night since Veronica was doing so poorly. But she was feeling mostly better so we'd decided to stay.  I'd told Lydia and Joe to go on a date.  

So after Veronica's hair was done Hillary changed and they went on a date to Buffalo Wild Wings.  

As soon as they were done I set a timer for 20 minutes and had the kids help me clean up the living room and family room.  We got all the toys picked up and the house looking so much better.  Then they went back to watching nonsense and I spent more time making sure the kitchen was clean.  

This made me feel like we'd helped Hillary and Joe out at least a little bit by taking over their house for the weekend.  (And Hillary assured me that having us there was much better than being bored and trying to keep the kids entertained by themselves.)

Around 10:00 I got all the kids ready for bed.  Veronica's fever was back and so I gave her fever reducer again.  Then she immediately threw it up.  

But she actually went to bed and slept well all night.  

Hillary and I stayed up and she gave me a bailage - or at least half of one.  She stripped my color that night and then toned it in the morning.  All I had wanted was a haircut, but she was like, "You are a level 8 blond with virgin hair.  A bailage on your hair is a pleasure." 

We all had better nights than the night before, but we still slept in until about 8 on Sunday. After breakfast Hillary toned and cut my hair and then it was basically time to leave. I wanted to get the kids home in time to let them relax and settle in before we had to get up for school the next day. 

The drive home was pretty uneventful. When we walked into the house we could smell something nice.  Brandon had made lasagna and left it in the oven on warm so it would be ready for us.  He really is the best.  

We'd hoped to be home in time to watch church on zoom, but even with a 1:30 start time we were home too late.  So we sat down to eat instead.  I noticed the kids didn't eat much, but I figured they'd had a lot of crackers in the car. 

Brandon was at his play.  He'd had a performance on Friday and Saturday. This was the Sunday Matinee at 2:00. His parents and one of his sisters and her family had come to see his play on Friday.  They'd had a good time. 

There was a cast party after the play so Brandon didn't get home until around 6:00. I decided we should watch Nightmare Before Christmas while we waited.  So we turned that one.  I lasted about 3 minutes before I was like, "Nope, I still don't like this movie." (It's style is just too ugly for me.) So I went outside and picked raspberries. 

I kept thinking that should write a to-do list for the busy week ahead of me, but that seemed difficult so I told myself I'd do it on Monday.

After the movie Derrick put on his roller blades and disappeared for a while. I assumed he was on our street, but didn't have the energy to check.  When he came back he was like, "I went to the park." So that's a thing now. He kept saying his throat hurt and he needed a drink. 

Brandon came home and everyone was so happy to see him. We talked all about our weekends.  I put the kids to bed starting at 8:00 and I had every intention of having a normal Monday morning and getting everyone out the door for school. 

BUT

Veronica was still coughing a little bit and she didn't want to get up.  So I said she could stay home. 

And when I went to wake Derrick up he said, "Mom, it's too late.  We need to get our shots. I'm sick!"  He started crying and I could tell he wasn't doing well.  So I let him go lay down in my bed and I said he could stay home. 

Lydia got up like normal and even had some breakfast.  But then she found me while I was putting on makeup.  She was like, "Mom, I can't go to school today. I don't feel well." She was near tears and obviously in pain so I said Lydia could stay home too. 

I knew everyone probably had what Veronica had had over the weekend.  I half expected Charlotte to be sick. But she was fine. 

I gave everyone medicine and told them to just sleep as long as they wanted. I figured this was my best chance to go to work and get things done. 

I was anxious to get to work and get on top of things for the week. So Charlotte and I drove over to my office. She helped me get things open and then I helped her across the crosswalk in front of my office.  It's so nice having the middle school across from my work. 

I got so much done at work that morning.  I was feeling super on top of things and thinking about how great it was to start the week this way. 

But I was also coughing a lot.  I was like, "Well I did share a bed with Veronica all weekend.  I must have caught was she has."

Then Hillary called. Hillary NEVER calls. Hillary never even answers her phone when I call so I knew this was a big deal.  And I kind of knew what she was going to say before she said it. She said, "I just tested positive for Covid. So you should probably test your kids."

And I was like, "Yeah, I was thinking I should do that."

Covid had been on the back of my mind since Veronica had first started coughing on Thursday evening.  But I didn't think to much about it.  I've given my kids so many Covid tests and they ALWAYS come out negative. I'd really just started assuming we were immune. 

So I finished things up at work and went home.  Derrick and Veronica were laying on the couch watching something on Youtube. I gave them Covid tests.  Veronica's came back positive. I was like, "crap."

Derrick's came back negative, but he had all the same symptoms as Veronica. 

Lydia was still asleep which I figured was a pretty good indication that she was positive. 

I decided to test myself. At first my test had a very faint second line and I was like, "I'm just going to ignore that."  But it got darker and I couldn't ignore it.  I'd just tested positive for COVID.  Dang it. I'd lasted nearly 2.5 years, but it finally got me. 

Veronica kept saying, "I have COVID!  I have COVID!"  She got a little panicky and I had to tell her that she was probably over the worst of it.  

I literally had no idea what we were supposed to do or not do. I had so many questions and thoughts. How long should we quarantine? Is that even a thing anymore? What about Brandon and Charlotte who were presumably healthy? Did I just infect all my Co-workers? And sorry about all the people we were in contact with at Lagoon on Thursday and Friday. I also felt super bad that we'd infected Hillary.  She told me "It was bound to happen some time."  But I still felt so bad. 

I ended up calling the elementary school and getting guidance from them. The current policy was to quarantine for 5 days after symptoms started and then wear a mask for 5 days. That meant Veronica could go back to school with a mask on Wednesday the 19th and without a mask on Monday the 24th. 

Even though Derrick didn't test positive he had the same symptoms as Veronica so we had to treat him like he was positive.  He could go back to school with a mask on Monday the 24th.  But since we were pretty certain he wouldn't wear one we just decided to wait to send him back until Thursday the 27th. 

I was beginning to realize this would have HUGE implications for my routine for a while. 

Lydia woke up and I tested her.  She came back negative. But because of symptoms was also a presumed positive. I called her school and she was basically the same timeline as Derrick.  (But the school told me that in order to have a medically excused absence they would need to see a positive test. I figured we'd get one in the next day or two.)

The next while was just a flurry of cancelling and rescheduling things. 

Parent Teacher Conference that afternoon - rescheduled onto zoom

Counting money for a PTO fundraiser on Tuesday - cancelled (thank goodness I've been building a good team of women who are also involved in PTO.)

Headshots at work on Tuesday - cancelled

Covering front desk on Tuesday - cancelled

Veronica's PT on Wednesday - actually still happening as long as she could wear a mask

The Harry Potter Experience on Thursday - cancelled for Me, Derrick, and Lydia (I ended up giving our tickets to the other set of twins and their step mom.)

Covering Front Desk on Friday morning - Cancelled

The Twins Halloween Birthday party that Saturday - rescheduled for the next weekend

I emailed my boss to let him know that I'd be working from home. 

I texted Brandon to let him know. 

At some point I sat down with my computer and then just didn't get up.  Derrick was next to me with him computer and we just sat there. Not doing much. 

I was checking some things for work and ended up doing like 30 minutes of work without clocking in. (That's how you know your sick.)

I realized I'd been in a fog all weekend, but I'd just assumed it was that normal "I over-did it and now I'm tired fog."  I hadn't realized I'd been sick. But now it all made sense. 

I spent the rest of the day just kind of in a fog. I kept being like, "I should do ______"  But then I'd just sit there. I also coughed a lot!

The kids just watched movies. 

Brandon came home and then Charlotte.  When I told Charlotte that everyone else was sick with corona she immediately backed up.  She and Brandon ended up spending a lot of time away from us. They even set up a tent in the backyard and slept out there. 

At night I took some medicine and that really helped with the cough. I was able to sleep well. Most of the kids did, but Lydia said she threw up during the night. 

In the morning I got up to help Charlotte get ready for school.  But she was really cold from sleeping in the tent. She also said she was really tired. She stayed home from school and I gave her a covid test.  It came out negative, and she insists she'd going to school on Wednesday, but I'm not sure. 

There is a tiny silver lining to this whole thing.  Because of parent teacher conferences this is actually only a three day school week.  So the kids are only missing three days of school. At least it isn't a whole week. 

It's Tuesday afternoon now.  We've spent the whole day laying on various couches and looking at various screens.  I keep telling myself I'll take a shower, but it hasn't happened yet. No one is really hungry which is nice because I haven't had to figure out meals. 

I'm still a little in a fog, but I find that I'm doing better with writing than with verbalizing things out loud. I was able to work from home for over two hours.  And I've written this whole blog post.  So that's all still stuff I can do.  But any physical stuff is just beyond anything I even want to think about.  

Anyway thanks for reading. And really all I can say at this point is  . . . . Oops.