Man, my health had me down. Catching up on Halloween, Mesa Temple Open Houose
Mostly likely I have Covid, which gave me a thyroid problem....which has made my heart race, my hands shake, and made me feel like I was going a little crazy trying to figure out what was wrong. On the plus side, I have lost weight and Gary introduced me to the cancer endocrinologist who has been just very helpful.
With that
The boys came home Saturday. Sunday was spent cleaning up and Rachel cuddling with her dad. The next day Gary felt sick. He was positive for Covid as well as Rachel and Grant. It was some of the toughest few days of my life. Feeling isolated because you have a contagious disease and curbing your schedule. Doing all the driving for kids because your husband is locked in his room. Feeling it unfair just because your church community won't mask and your schools won't mask (even though you send your kids in masks) that we have to get this disease. I am so glad we got our kids vaccinated.
I definitely spent a few days emailing nurses and the school board with my displease at their decision not to protect my family.
Seeing Gary so sick for 6 days even after being vaccinated. Holding down the fort and carrying for everyone. It was such a weight on my shoulders.
After a hard two week, we were able to go to Hawaii for Fall Break. It was the relief we very much needed. We stayed at Wainamolo in a beach house and got to spend a lot of time with Sonia and her family. We did an activity every day and then came home and spend the rest at the beach. It was really a nice getaway.
Now back to life. I am teaching for ASU digital prep about halfway through my master's. I really enjoy teaching physical science. I want to give back to my community, I have found that helping these kids really does make me happy.
A few photos to document the boy's week.....our freezer is now full of 100lbs of fish...salmon, halibut, and rockfish. Highlights were of course fishing, whale watching, playing at the beach, raspberries everywhere, reindeer hotdogs, and a firepit with cousins. They enjoyed the week, which ended on Friday with a flood hot water heater and no hot water (luckily it was the last day). Now back to school.....
The boys left for an Alaskan fishing trip while the girls stayed home. We did spa night last night and got our nails done and watched Pitch Perfect. We plan to have a really fun week. We made Shahi Paneer, went out for breakfast, (put up 4 hours of flags for our boys...they put up flags on the holidays to save for their missions), went out for Thai, went to soccer games, did a lot of cute hairstyles.
With the boys gone I did not clean the floor (which I normally do every day), and I only did 2 loads of laundry a week....which I normally do 2 every day. My school really ramped up this week, so it was a good week for me to have a break from the routine. (partial break)
I watched a lot of you tube late into the night. I kinda became addicted to Hoof GP...this show about a guy who trims cows feet in Scotland. So Odd, I know....but it reminds me of the Cotswalds and making me nostalgic for my childhood and watching the ferrier trim all of our horses feet. I definitely can't sleep without Gary next to me. I think without him I would become some sort of weird cat lady.....
Soccer for 5 is starting. Last night was the first practice for Lily.... add that to piano lessons, cello lessons, robotics club, tennis, and gymnastics. I am very careful what I put my children in, because I want dinner together as a family. But just have so many children has made our lives and afternoons very busy. I do want them anxiously engaged. Lily has decided to to continue teaching her summer piano lessons, so our house is full of piano students in the afternoons and it is good for her to save some money for college.
It is interesting though because when they all left for school last week, the emotion that I felt was Loneliness just with 1 potty training toddler who likes to play on her own. I have been finding things to fill my morning with (not too much because my afternoon is chaos), but I took an nice woman with one leg to the doctor today, and reached out to some friends for playdates for Charli, and cleaned my house, my swimming in the morning with Charli a priority. School starts for me in a couple days too.
My 40th birthday is just a few weeks away, I have been reflecting a lot on what I have accomplished in the last 40 years and IF I have accomplished what I wanted to. I have been really thinking about areas I feel great and areas I want to improve. It sounds silly, but I feel like 40 is the gateway to the rest of my life, what do I want to do or rather who do I want to become?
We had another great boating Saturday. And a great date for Waygu burgers after that at Burgerfi. It is pretty delicious.
10th, 8th, 6th, 4th, and 1st grade.... and Charli still home with me. I am so grateful for school and the chance my kids have to learn. The proudest moment I had this week was when Ben chose to advocate for himself to be in a higher math class. I was really proud of him, because my efforts to move him had failed.
Rachel had a few pre-school jitters, and Ben woke up at 3 in the morning, but all-in-all school was great.
I got formally excepted to graduate school this week. I have been praying all weekend if this would be an okay choice for my family. I really love a lot of things, but they aren't so conducive to my parenting schedule. I need to be there for my kids and I want to get more education, but I need those things to work out. I would have loved medicine, dental school, nursing, but I don't see the timing as working well with a family. I am hoping to teach community college, or maybe virtual high school for a bit, we will see. I just wished I had furthered my education when I was a little less restricted by children those first few years of marriage, and I was sooooo lonely. So far I feel good about what I have chosen, and I hope to find a niche.
This weekend we got to take the boat out with Lily's friends. I love Canyon lake, it is one of my favorites.
Great first week of school! Here is to a great year! Our back- to- school (Japanese Olmpyic inspired dinner and theme: No Weak Links
