COVID Party, Team Dirty vs Team Clean, Quarantining Matthew, Virtual Everything, Veteran’s Day

The last two weeks have been interesting to say the least.  We got notification two weeks ago today that Matthew’s housemate tested positive for Covid.  That meant that Matthew now had to undergo a two week quarantine period meaning he couldn’t go to school or come and visit us either since we considered a separate household.  We felt so bad for him.  He is such a social kid!  Those two weeks were going to be very long.  Once the staff at the group home broke the news to him he was pretty unconsolable.  Luckily, they have gotten to know him well enough that they were able to distract him with a few different crafts in between him calling us to vent.  They did send us a few pictures of a few crafts they did with him during the quarantine period.  Luckily, I was able to go and pick up some different items to make up a gift basket of activities for him the next day.  Aunt Johanna did the same a few days later.  G&G T dropped some activities off and some shredding for him to work on the next week.  We also made sure he had the link to our Sacrament Meeting so he could virtually attend sacrament meeting via Youtube.  Here’s one picture of a completed craft he worked on:

Right after finding out he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere for two weeks he was pretty upset.  The staff did call and ask if we had any ideas of how to help him not be so upset.  We tried to give them ideas, but they were already trying to distract him with different activities.  Luckily, by the next afternoon he finally resigned himself to the fact that he would be homebound for two weeks.  He was not happy about it, but he wasn’t unconsolable anymore.  I felt horrible for the poor kid!!  Matthew’s housemate that was sick isolated in his bedroom and only came out to eat and to use the restroom to try not spread it.   Matthew could call us anytime and he did.  Especially the last three days.  He really wanted to make sure everything was set up for him to go back to school.  Even though I assured him I had already contacted the bus driver and his teacher, he still called multiple times to make sure my answer didn’t change.  I was glad he was able to go back to school this morning.  Even if he only goes one day this week he still was so excited to ride the bus to school this morning!!

Two weeks ago Josh answered his Sadie’s date back.  She is a tennis player so this is how Josh wanted to answer her back.  I helped him make this tennis ball poster:

He dropped it off at her house after work.  Before he had gone to work he had casually asked her what her favorite pizza was.  He made her that pizza and dropped it off along with a tube of tennis balls, the poster, some Crazy Bread and candy.

Unfortunately the Covid case numbers have really jumped up so they are postponing the Sadie’s dance date until later when things calm down a bit.

Two weeks ago it was Veteran’s Day.  All the kids had to go to school that day, but it is one of those cool government holidays that Aaron gets off of work.  Josh had online school because the high school had more than 15 cases of Covid so they had to do a two week soft closure.  Anyway, Josh had all day Zoom classes so he still had ’school’ even if he was home.  Anyway, Aaron and I grocery shopping that morning.  Then we stopped by a did an hour of bowling.  We were the only customers on all of Boondocks.  It was a bit eery.  Anyway,  After 4 games of bowling Aaron still beat me, but only by 11 points.  I must say that we are both not that great at bowling--haha--but it was still fun.  

Proof that we both stink at bowling--haha!

However, while we were bowling Aaron got a call from work.  I thought all government had the day off, but I was wrong.  There was a team that was sent out to Portugal 4 weeks previously to build a lab.  However, a week into the build one of the men got Covid.  The rest of the team got quarantined because of it.  The poor guy that got Covid ended up needing to be hospitalized and put on a ventilator.  The rest of the team had to stay in quarantine even after getting negative Covid tests since you can get sick up to 14 days after exposure.  It was pretty miserable to everyone.  Well once the teams' quarantine was over they allowed them to fly back home.  However, the guy in the hospital was still on a ventilator and not even close to coming off.  Another guy from the team stayed back to make sure the guy in the hospital had someone there that he knew.  However, after a month of being away from home, the guy that had stayed back needed to come back home to his family.  They needed someone to fly out to Portugal to replace him so they called Aaron to see if he had a passport and could go.  They asked him to be ready to go as soon as that Saturday--3 days away.  So he ended up working from home to limit his possibility to a Covid exposure until he would be leaving.  He also had to get a negative Covid nasal test no more than 72 hours before he would leave.  I was not too excited about Aaron leaving and being gone over Thanksgiving, but what can you do?!  He got more information about the trip and it was decided that he would leave the following Wednesday to fly out to Portugal.  That meant he had to get a Covid nasal swab test done Monday morning.  Friday afternoon I started getting a runny nose and a sore throat.  Thinking it was either the dry air I just shrugged it off.  However, by Sunday I was pretty congested, had a dry non productive cough, and had a low grade fever with body aches.  I thought I had a cold so I took a decongestant and powered through.  I did stay home all weekend since I didn’t feel that great.  I tried to stay away from Aaron as much as I could since that’s the last thing he needed if he was going to be flying to Portugal.  Monday morning Aaron went and got his Covid test done.  He came home and took one look at me and we both decided I should probably get tested just to be on the safe side.  I didn’t need to send Aaron to Portugal with Covid.  I got my rapid nasal test done right before lunch.  Then I came home and went to bed.  Just as I was falling asleep Aaron came and shoved the phone in my hand saying it was from the doctor’s office.  I took the call only for them to tell me I had a positive Covid test--DOH!!  That surprised me since I felt like I only had a cold.  We had also been careful to wash hands, wear a mask, use hand sanitizer, etc.

About two hours later I got a call from the Health Department.  They gave me a bunch of information and instructions.  I needed to isolate from everyone in my household for 10 days or longer if I still was symptomatic.  Here’s the verbal order of isolation letter they sent me:

They also sent me a bunch of other information, too.  I holed up in my bedroom and didn’t come out.  However, as the day went on Josh and Sarah weren’t feeling that great either.  They were congested, with a dry cough and low grade fever.  The next morning we decided it would probably be best if they got tested, too.  Aaron made the online pediatrician appointment, got the Covid test order and took both of them to be tested Tuesday morning.  Josh’s Covid test came back positive.  DOUBLE DOH!!  Sarah’s test came back negative, but the doctor said with her symptoms and with two positive cases at home, we should treat the test as a false negative and treat her like she has Covid, too.  That meant Josh, Sarah and I got to have a Covid party for three.  I got another call from the Health Department to tell me all the same Covid isolation and other information about Josh that I was told the previous day.  We did have to do some rearranging of things to maintain that isolation.  Aaron had already moved all his stuff and was sleeping upstairs on the guest bed and using that bathroom.  Since Josh shared a bedroom with Daniel, Daniel moved out of Josh’s room and slept in Matthew’s bedroom.  Noah stayed put since he doesn’t share a room with anyone.  Josh and Sarah would sleep in their own bedrooms at night, but when they woke up they would put a mask on and walk to the master bedroom to isolate with me all day until they would put their mask on to walk back to their bedrooms to sleep.  We did this for 10 days.  Here’s my isolation buddies and our daily setup:

Josh got the recliner and Sarah laid in my bed next to me.  They worked on homework.  When they got done with homework we read.  We decided to share the same book series so we had a mini book group going on.  It was fun to read and discuss.  Who knew Sarah, Josh and I would have a fun book group together?!  When we got tired of reading we then would watch TV for the rest of the evening.  Josh and Sarah loved watching the TV series ‘Good Eats’ and 'Cutthroat Kitchen’.  I enjoyed watching it too, however, it made me bit sad because at this point I had completely lost my sense of smell and taste.  Everything tasted like eating a wet sponge.  It was so weird!!  Too see how bad my loss of taste was Aaron made me a plate of crackers topped with Sriracha sauce which is a hot pepper sauce.  Now if you know me you know that I am a totally a wuss when it comes to eating spicy food.  However, I was able to eat all the crackers topped with Sriracha and not taste a thing.  That’s when Aaron knew how far gone my sense of taste was--haha!  Luckily, Sarah and Josh never lost their sense of taste and smell.  Mine still hasn’t come back, but what can you do?!  I am trying to like the taste of wet sponge--haha!  At the beginning of isolation Daniel thought he was funny when he named Josh, Sarah and I Team Dirty and Aaron, Daniel and Noah were Team Clean.  Hilarious....not really, though.

Since we had positive Covid cases that meant the rest of the family had to quarantine and couldn’t go to school or work.  Aaron had to work from home which he doesn’t like to do.  Thankfully, the guy on the ventilator in Portugal was able to be weaned off the ventilator and was able to fly home Friday.  It’s a good thing since Aaron, despite having a negative Covid test, had to quarantine at home and wouldn’t have been able to go anyway.  

Since the three of us had to isolate that meant we couldn’t come out of the bedroom.  Aaron was the best.  He would bring us in breakfast, lunch and dinner in between trying to telework from home.  He took care of us really well.  I felt horrible and helpless I couldn’t do more.  I felt fine enough to cook and clean, but we needed to isolate which meant I couldn’t/shouldn’t leave the bedroom.  Most of the time he would wear a mask to deliver our meals, but I caught him without a mask this one time:

G&G T were kind enough to drop off dinner on the porch one night.  We also had a few treats dropped off from some sweet friends, too.  However, by the end of the week Aaron was done with cooking so he ordered Little Caesar’s Pizza and got it delivered contactless via DoorDash.  He even was able to shop online and do to go contactless pick up at the grocery store.  Amazon was pretty great to use as well.  Those 10 days in isolation were pretty boring!!  I finally was able to get out of isolation today and it was awesome!!  However, I came to the conclusion that Aaron and I definitely have differing definitions of what a clean house is--haha!  Good thing I am out of isolation now and can get things back into shape.  Josh and Sarah still have two more days in isolation, but Aaron, Daniel and Noah have to wait the full 14 days of quarantine to make sure they won’t get sick before they can resume in person school and work.  That means we are still all stuck home together for another week. DOH!!  It also means that since we are a COVID positive home that Matthew won’t be able to come home for Thanksgiving.  I feel horrible!!  I told him that we would have our family Thanksgiving dinner in two weeks that way we can still celebrate even if it’s not on the actual holiday.  Poor Matthew!  That makes me feel really sad and guilty.  We were going to have our extended family over at our house for Thanksgiving, but, obviously, that isn’t going to happen this year.  This year has really been the worst!!  I won’t be sad to see 2020 leave!!  One positive thing, though, is Josh is able to get paid from his job using COVID leave.   He just had to send his letter from the Health Department to his boss and he qualifies for the Covid pay relief.  However, he would much rather work than be stuck at home in isolation with his mom and sister--haha!  He did enjoy our book group, though.

All through our quarantine and isolation Matthew’s staff would send us pictures of his different activities.  I am grateful his staff were able to keep him busy and happy as well as help him with his online schooling.  While he was stuck at home he was able to attend two classes a week via Zoom.  He really enjoyed that.

Sarah has been able to attend her dance class virtually through some Google platform so that has helped keep some resemblance of normalcy for her.  Aaron and I were able to attend Daniel’s CCR meeting with his school counselor to discuss his future school plans virtually as well.  The rest of the kids are trying to do virtual learning, but it has been hard.  Some things are definitely easier to learn visually than reading about it.  They will be so glad to go back to in person school.  Too bad it won’t be for another week, though.  Thankfully, Daniel, Noah and Aaron have not had any Covid symptoms so we are hoping that the rest of quarantine will remain uneventful!  I got out of quarantine/isolation this morning so I was able to take Matthew to piano lessons. I was able to give him a big hug when I saw him.  Even though I am considered ’safe’ right now I still had us both wear masks the whole time we were together.   It was nice to see him in person since I haven’t seen him in person since October 28.  Poor guy!!  He’s had a rough time being stuck at home.  He was able to go to school this morning after piano lessons, too.  I am so glad he didn’t get sick!  

Aaron was pretty excited for me to be out of isolation, too.  He’s done cooking and cleaning.  I am glad that we can now have some vegetables with our meals.  I am not bagging on Aaron he did great, but I don’t think any of us have eaten a vegetable for at least 10 days--haha!  He took really good care of Team Dirty while we were in isolation so I am grateful for that!!  Glad I am a free person today, though.  I am also extremely thankful the Covid infection didn’t get bad and just stayed like a bad cold.  I can see how it could turn deadly for those who are compromised, though!  Now I am trying to decide what to fix for dinner.  Any recipes for wet sponge?!  Haha!

Halloween, Pumpkin Walks, Emails, Rough Sports Night, Halloween Party, Visitors, Running, Zooming, Online Classes, Fear Factory, Working, Shredding, Sadie Hawkins

I have been slacking off with keeping up with everything including the blog.  Here’s what has been going on in the last two weeks.

Josh and Daniel got to participate in the City Pumpkin Walk with the youth council.  However, this year was a bit different due to Covid. Usually they have a bunch of carved pumpkins and luminaries set up for people to walk around and see with different people manning candy stations throughout the walk.  This year they did a drive through instead.  They got a bunch of people to carve or paint pumpkins and make luminaries and set them up along the edges of the city park.  They then set up 10 differently themed candy stations which were decorated pop up tents manned with the youth council throughout the drive through.  Josh was an astronaut and Daniel was Iron Man.  Here they are before they went to help set up for the night:

I had to work so Aaron took the kids and did the drive through.  Here’s Josh’s space station:

He quickly pulled down his mask to say hi to Aaron, Sarah and Noah:

Daniel’s station was the Marvel Comic station.  Daniel was Iron Man:

After the drive through was over the youth council helped clean up.  They were just going to throw away the carved pumpkins so Josh took some and pranked some friends by spreading them all over their yards.  He did keep a few for our house, too. I tried to get the kids to carve pumpkins for Halloween, but no one really wanted to, boo!  At least I had some festive pumpkins to display even if my own family didn’t make them!

Matthew and his housemates planned and threw a Halloween party for their families.  Matthew had been so excited about it that he called me almost every day to remind me about it.  Finally the day came for his party.  We showed up with G&G T at 6 pm.  Sarah, Daniel and Noah came dressed up in their Halloween costumes, too.  Josh had to work so he wasn’t with us.  As we were getting out of our cars the house manager came and asked us why we were so early.  I guess Matthew had told us the wrong time of 6 pm when the real party was supposed to start at 8 pm DOH!!  

While we were hanging out Matthew got to show G&G T his bedroom, shelf in the pantry, his shelf in the fridge and freezer.  He also showed them his daily schedule, too.  We decided to go out and play some Badminton while it was still light outside.  On our way out Matthew showed us the jack-o-lantern he carved:

They have a net set up outside where you can play badminton or volleyball.  We started out playing badminton when Aaron hit the birdie over the fence into the neighbor’s yard.  Unfortunately, their dog immediately chewed up the birdie so we were then done playing badminton.  We then tried our hand at volleyball.  Aaron ended up hitting the ball into the other neighbor’s yard with a locked gate so we couldn’t get the ball back.  Let’s just say Aaron wasn’t having a good sports night that night--haha!

While we were getting ready to walk around to the front yard someone tripped over the net holder and broke the stand.  We, seriously, were not having a good night--sports wise!!  After Grandpa T ‘modified’ and fixed the broken stand with a big stick and duct tape we were done playing.  I think the house staff took a big sigh of relief since we seemed to break everything we were touching that night--ugh!  We felt horrible for breaking and losing their game equipment!  At that point we were done playing anyway since we didn’t have a volleyball or birdie to play with anymore, either.  The next day we did pick up another 10 pack of birdies and gave it to them because we felt bad. 

G&G T ended up leaving a bit early, but we stayed for the party.  Matthew showed us the Halloween mask he made:

Later on as 8 pm approached the house manager got the party started.  He had Matthew and one of his housemates help plan the party.  They had both wanted pizza so they got a few pizzas from Papa Murphy’s and cooked them.  They also made homemade root beer.  Then we had some pumpkin bars for dessert.  Afterward we played some Halloween BINGO where Matthew’s housemate made up little baggies with treats in them for the winners.  It was a fun party even if we got there two hours before it was supposed to start since Matthew told us the wrong time--haha!

Matthew has a pretty locked down cell phone.  We only have programmed in Aaron and my cell phone numbers as well as his house manager’s phone number for him to call.  In the past he hasn’t used very good choices in who to call about what and when so this was the easiest way to help oversee who and when he talked to on the phone.  That way we could make sure the phone call would be warranted and appropriate.  Just for example he has asked to call the police many times because he has found litter on a trail and he has also asked to call friends at 6 am in the morning so you can see why we wanted an additional layer of someone to go through to make sure these calls were appropriate and needed before he made them.  Anyway, Matthew being the smart kiddo he is, found a workaround.  He has discovered email and that he can email anyone and everyone he wants and no one can stop him because he has total control over his email account.  Ugh.  I didn’t realize he was emailing people until Josh came home from school and told me that his Spanish teacher told Josh to tell Matthew Hi because Matthew had just emailed him.  Say What?!  Come to find out Matthew had emailed all of Josh’s teachers to say hi in turn the teachers would tell Josh at school to say hi to Matthew for them. **Sigh** what can you do?!  Luckily, in Matthew’s forms we went over when he moved into his group home went over visitor rules.  Any visitor that sees Matthew at his home has to be approved by me and/or Aaron and we have to text the house manager to let him know they are approved.  I am very glad they had that in place just to keep Matthew safe.  Well a day before the Halloween party Matthew let me know that the principal from his old high school said he would try to stop by to visit during the party as well as the old vice principal.  As the Halloween party went on they actually did stop by for a visit with both their families.  It was pretty cool that they would do that!  The old vice principal stopped by after attending a previous Halloween party so that is why he is dressed up in a ‘rapper’ costume with tight, shiny gold pants, backwards hat and a huge gold necklace--haha! Matthew was beyond excited.  It was all we could do to get him to hold still for a picture with them:

One of Matthew’s old teacher aides stopped by for a visit as well.  I am glad they came.  However, it makes me nervous about how many other people Matthew has emailed and we have no idea about....What a crazy kid!!

He had a few more visitors from high school this past week, too.  He let me know the old secretary and her daughter stopped by for a visit.  I approved those visits since that is the girl that Matthew went to Homecoming with when he was Homecoming King.  Again I am glad they stopped by for a visit, but it also makes me really wonder who else he has emailed.  That kid can be too smart for his own good sometimes!!  Both Matthew and Josh are so social.  Sometimes I really wonder if they are my kids because I am so NOT social--haha!  They must take after Aaron is all I can figure!

Every year the elementary school does a Halloween parade where all the parents, grandparents can come and watch the kids walk around in their Halloween costumes.  Unfortunately, this year they had to do things a lot different due to Covid.  Instead of having parents and grandparents visit the school they did a Facebook live feed and everyone was able to watch the kids walk around the track in their costumes from home.  G&G T we excited to be able to see Noah walk by in his Halloween sumo suit.  Noah hammed it up for the camera which helped us know exactly which one Noah was--haha!  Here’s Mr. Sumo during the Facebook live Halloween parade feed:

I texted G&G T to see if they saw Noah go by.  This is what they said--HAHA!

Josh had a friend who was injured by a drunk driver in a car crash at the end of July.  She ended up paralyzed and needed both of her legs amputated as well as a bunch of other surgeries just to survive.  To support her there was a 5K race two Saturdays ago.  Josh signed up to run as well as a bunch of other cross country runners.  He was more than happy to support her especially if it meant running.  Here is Josh and a few friends before the race:

Josh was excited to show us his 5K medal when he got home from running:

A lot of the cross country runners wore their long distance running flaps shorts so Josh wore his, too.  Aaron and I call them his ‘booty’ or ‘cheek peeker’ shorts--haha!

I was so happy to see that Syracuse city would be doing their annual Pumpkin Walk this year.  We love going to this every year as a family.  We had to change things up a bit this year, though.  It was only for one weekend.  It was hard to try and find a time where everyone would be able to go.  We ended up going Saturday afternoon because that was the only time most of us could make it.  Sarah wasn’t with us because she was with some friends, and Matthew had other plans so it was only the 5 of us--Aaron, me, Josh, Daniel and Noah.  We had to go during the afternoon since Josh and Daniel had to work at Nightmare Acres that night.  It was actually quite pleasant because no one else was around.  The Pumpkin Walk is only supposed to start at 6 pm, but we were some rule breakers--haha!  It was nice to walk around and see all the cool pumpkins.

A Ron Swanson pumpkin:

Wahoo a Fiiz pumpkin!

Although we didn’t have Sarah and Matthew with us we still enjoyed being together.  After we looked at all the pumpkins Josh and Daniel left for work and Aaron, me and Noah came home and hung out together.  Noah loved the one on one attention since that doesn’t happen very often--haha!

Let me just say I HATE election years!  This year it seems like the mud slinging was that much worse.  Neither candidate was a great choice which makes it hard to choose.  It seems like you are choosing a lesser of two evils....Anyway, I did find one campaign sign Aaron could agree with:

Aaron and I sent in our mail in ballot.  We let the kids look at what the ballot looked like and discussed a few of the issues.  I thought it was important to let them see what a ballot looked like since Josh and Daniel will be old enough to vote in the next big election.  How scary is that?!  It was cool we were able to follow where our ballot went and make sure it got counted.  I am nervous about the next four years, but all you can do is support our local leaders and turn it over to Heavenly Father and remember He is ultimately in charge.

Two weeks ago was the end of the term.  I have been working a ton so I haven’t been home to nag  oh I mean follow up on the kids home school work.  I just had to ask them if their school work as done and hope they were on top of things.  They assured me all their work was done--that is until I checked their grades. EEEE GADS it was not pretty!!  Luckily, I had a few days off so I could really make sure they were able to turn in most of their missing assignments.  I am grateful the teachers were willing to accept most of the late assignments!  I found this meme so fitting:

Amazingly enough Josh, Daniel and Sarah made the honor roll, but it wasn’t without much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth--mostly from me--haha!

Noah had his parent teacher conferences via Zoom a few days ago.  I had been nervous about what we would find out during the conferences since Noah started the year out by being a bit difficult.  I was pleasantly surprised that Noah has started making good choices and is doing a lot better now than he was at the beginning of the year behavior wise.  I just hope it continues.  We do have a reward system in place so it seems to be working. Keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way!

Every year Josh and I go to some kind of haunted house.  I didn’t know if we would be able to go this year since both our schedules have been a bit crazy.  However, we found a time and booked a spot at Fear Factory in Salt Lake.  We had to go at 10 pm at night since both Josh and I worked until 8:30 that night.  I came home from work and picked Josh up and we headed down to Salt Lake.  We had never been to Fear Factory before.  It is an old cement factory that is supposed to be haunted that someone turned into a haunted house.  It has actually gotten a few awards, too:

Anyway, this will be the last year Josh and I will be able to go to a haunted house since Josh will most likely be on his mission next year.  Everyone else in my house HATES haunted houses so Josh is my only scare buddy.  I will be sad not having anyone to go with me :(.  Anyway, we decided to make the most of this year.  

In the beginning they had some photo ops that Josh couldn’t pass by.

A haunted time machine:

A haunted bathroom:

A haunted living room:

A really gross display:

They even took our picture.  The first one they said to look super scared--instead we just look super stupid--haha!

The second picture was a normal, smiley one.

They didn’t allow any photography as you went through the haunted house so those are the only picture we got of the night, but the haunted house didn’t disappoint.  We walked through the whole old factory and I just say it was done pretty well.  I usually keep my cool, but there were a few spots I did let out a few yelps.  Glad I wasn’t there alone.  We had a fun time.  I will miss my scare buddy next year, though.

We did get another chance to have lunch together last week, though.  Josh needed another round of allergy shots.  I checked him out of school got the shots done and then Josh chose to have Chick-Fil-A together for lunch.  I was okay with that.

Things are finally slowing down quite a bit at my work.  The kids and Aaron are pretty glad about that!  Anyway, I did get the chance to do a clinic up in Green River Wyoming two weeks ago. It was pretty crazy because just the drive to get up there was 2 hours and 40 minutes one way.  I had to leave at 6 am.  Luckily, the night before I was able to down load a few audio books to listen to while I drove.  It was COLD!!  I had to make a pit stop 90 minutes into my drive and it was 17 degrees outside--BRRRR!  When we got there there was snow on the ground and it was cold.  It was a care center clinic.  We gave the residents their Pneumovax 23 (pneumonia shot), Prevnar 13, and/or their flu shots.  It was a 5 hour clinic before we had to turn around and make the 2 hour and 40 minute drive back home.  When I got there I texted the snow picture to Aaron. It was a pretty drive and I loved listening to the audio book to pass the time.  

Sophie is a licker and I laughed when I saw this sign because it was so fitting--haha!

Daniel got his 9th grade school pictures back.  Although I am extremely biased--I think he is pretty cute.

A few weeks ago the 12 year old young women class painted rocks to be put into the foundation of the new Layton temple.  I was able to drive over with Sarah and put all the painted rocks the girls did in the boxes to be included in the foundation.  I also had my family do their own rocks which I added to it as well.  It was cool to see all the rocks that everyone has done in the area:

Halloween night Sarah and Noah were pretty excited.  Josh and Daniel had to work at Nightmare Acres so they weren’t around that evening.  Noah went trick or treating with one friend around the neighborhood.

They didn’t coordinate, but both were sumo wrestlers which was pretty funny.  Off they go to get some candy:

Sarah dressed up as Malificient.

She met up with her friends, Laurie and Gabby, and went trick or treating around the area.

Sophie dressed up as a lobster and HATED it the whole time.  She was flipping out at all the people ringing the doorbell so we ended up putting her bark collar on which she HATED even more.  She had a pretty miserable Halloween, but at least she looked cute:

Noah went around the neighborhood with his fellow sumo wrestler friend Jesse.  By the time they were done around our neighborhood Jesse was done trick or treating.  Good thing Noah was able meet up with another friend, Nathaniel, and go around to the neighboring neighborhoods.  I went along with them since I didn’t want them to go by themselves.  Aaron was more than happy to stay back to hand out candy because it meant he could watch the BYU football game on that night.

When Sarah got home later that night she was tired.  She snuggled up next to Aaron and fell asleep.  Aaron was LOVING it since that rarely happens anymore.

Due to Covid a lot of houses this year just set a bowl of candy out with a sign saying only take one piece of candy.  There were even some houses that set up candy chutes to keep a good social distance between the home owner the trick or treater.  There were even less houses that actually handed out candy at the door in person.  I guess Noah got a bit overzealous at one house who let them take a handful of candy.  He ended up taking not only candy, but the candy tongs, too, in his handful.  When he came home and dumped out his candy all of us got a good laugh out of that:

Josh and Daniel had fun working at the haunted corn maze this year.  Josh like trading parts with different people. He got to try out being a crazy, zombie, psych ward patient one night:

He told the make up artist to go crazy with the latex so he could have a good, gross looking wound:

He and Daniel got to be clowns one night:

Daniel was pumpkin head one night:

Josh was a zombie another night:

Now that October is over Daniel is glad for the break in work, but will be missing the paychecks.  Since Josh worked the corn maze every weekend, Little Caesar’s is making up for lost time and is working Josh like crazy.  I am just glad he is earning money to support his lifestyle--he is a bit of a spend thrift--haha!  Nightmare Acres had a staff party last week for all the employees.  Josh and Daniel had fun attending and they even won some prizes.  Josh won most entertaining room.  Daniel won a Fiiz gift card.  They had a good season.

Matthew got another round of shredding from Office Max and finished it off as well as some shredding from Aunt Johanna and our friend Erin.  He likes to text me a picture every time he empties his shred bin:

All the kids Sunday classes are now through Zoom.  Last week we didn’t get the link for Sarah’s Sunday school class so we had her join in on Daniel’s class.  They are sharing a pair of ear buds while listening in the living room.

Last Sunday Josh had a Zoom appointment so he got dressed for Zoom--nice Sunday shirt with comfy shorts since no one can see you from the waist down--haha:

Must have learned it from Aaron who wore this to his Zoom meeting yesterday--haha!

I got to teach the YW lesson two weeks ago via Zoom.  As soon as my lesson started I got this text from Daniel showing me how his Iron Man pants fit that he just received.  I had a hard time not laughing as soon as I got that picture during my lesson:

We got to visit with the local missionaries via a Zoom meeting last night as well as have our tithing settlement meeting Saturday morning.  

 

I have never done so many zoom meetings in my life!  I am starting to think Zoom had something to do with the spread of Covid--just kidding.

Last Friday was G&G T’s 50th wedding anniversary.  Not too many couples make it that long so that’s pretty amazing!  Johanna and I worked a clinic together that day so we sent them a selfie of us and wished them a happy 50th wedding anniversary.  Too bad we can’t get together this year to celebrate due to Covid--Boo!!  AT least we were able to all go on a cruise last year to celebrate so we will just have to look at the pictures from last year and reminisce. 

Josh got asked to the Sadie Hawkins dance Saturday night.  Since the school isn’t doing dances this year due to Covid, some friend groups are doing their own private dance dates.  Josh got asked by a friend and is pretty excited to attend.  Here’s how she asked:

He is still trying to come up with a witty reply.  Unfortunately, there was an update by the Utah state governor saying all social gatherings need to be put on hold for at least the next two weeks.  That means that this Sadie Hawkins Dance will be postponed, but Josh is still excited to be able to go.

Sunday Aaron decided to make Sonoran Hot Dogs for dinner.  It is a bacon wrapped hot dog that is smoked.  You then put it on a hot dog bun and top it with pinto beans, pico de Gallo, cotija cheese, cilantro, avocado, and sour cream.  It is quite delicious.

Believe it or not we only had 6 hot dogs as leftovers.  My kids eat SO MUCH!!

Josh has been challenged by his cross country coach to run 40 miles each week until the end of April.  He has been doing pretty well so far.  However, he got a bit behind this week so he had to run 11 miles on Saturday.  In the middle of his run he did stop by to see G&G T for a bit since he was running right by their house.  He had a nice visit with them.  He got to see their new furniture and have a drink.  I am glad we live close by!  He wanted to actually run 15 miles Saturday, but his knee really started bothering him so he called me to come pick him up after mile 11.  That still is pretty awesome if you ask me!

Last week the Covid cases at the high school exceeded the 15 count limit so they put the high school on a two week soft closure.  That means the kids have to Zoom all their classes.  Josh took advantage of Zoom classes at home and stayed in his jammies.  He then had a nap break during lunch.  What the life, right?!  Don’t get me wrong it would be better if they were in person school, but you need to make the most of the hand you are dealt, right?!

Good thing he had this HUGE bag of Halloween candy to get him through Zoom classes--haha!

It sounds like the Jr. High is fast approaching their 15 case limit, too.  I am afraid Sarah and Daniel will be doing Zoom homeschool sooner than later, too.  BOO!! Let me just say again that Covid stinks!!  BOO!!