Life is an Adventure

What a year we've had so far! We all got Covid at the end of January, right at the tail end of the first Omicron spike. The kids were hardly sick. Mostly they each had one day where they were lethargic and had sore throats/snot/cough. Derek and I were coughing for what seemed forever. The gunk in our throats and coughing lasted for a month or more. And we were pretty worn out for a few days, but otherwise I think we got off pretty good. (Thank you vaccinations!)

From there, we've been sick pretty much every few weeks, or at least someone in the house is always sick. They lifted the mask mandate in the schools and buildings in I think March, which was bad timing as we were going to Florida to visit Grandmother in the beginning of April! Thankfully, the week we were in Florida we managed to be healthy! (Thank you Jesus!)

Florida was wonderful! The weather was great, not too hot, not humid. The kids swam in the pool at the house a lot. We went to the beach and got completely and very painfully lobsterized! Went to an aquarium in Sarasota. Went mini golfing in Fort Myers. Ate out for nearly every. single. meal. The best parts were when we got to be with Grandmother. One of my favorite things was when we all went to the cemetery to visit Grandfathers gravesite. We all sure do miss him and his crazy stories. We noticed there were pennies on some of the headstones, and found out that if there is a penny on a headstone, it means someone stopped by that grave, so we left a penny on Grandfathers. 

As vacations always do, it ended too quickly and before we knew it it was time to go home again. We had a traumatic trip home with getting confused getting to the airport because of poor road markings and no signage in Florida. Took FOREVER getting checked into the airport because their computers were barely working. Then we were some of the last people to board the plane because we were getting lunch.
One of the worst parts was when we had to go through security. The security people were complete jerks, treating all the people like idiots, fighting over who had to take an elderly lady, running everyone through the bag scanners as fast as they could go to the point that things were getting lost. A poor lady lost her phone and my sweater never came out of the machine. 10 minutes later it finally emerged not even in a bin. At some point I think it had fallen out (since all the bins were so full of stuff) and got stuck in the machine. I was FURIOUS with how they were treating people. 

Our plane ride was mostly uneventful, it was a direct flight from TPA to PDX and it was 6 hours long. About the time we passed into Oregon and started descending, Jadon began to have an anxiety attack because he had an upset stomach. The turbulence into PDX was pretty bad as well, so I'm sure that didn't help. But he was gagging into a vomit bag the whole way down. 

Once we landed, thankfully we got our bags right away, but waited at the airport for awhile so Jadon could go poop. Then a quick ride back to the hotel where we left the van, and we were on the road back home. About 20 minutes before Albany, Avery proceeds to barf all over the van and herself. She apparently had an anxiety attack over Jadon having an anxiety attack. Thankfully Carter slept through everything, but this didn't help Jadon's anxiety at all. Finally got to Albany and got Gramma Debbie dropped off and finally made it home. Cleaned the car a little bit and left the rest for the next day to deal with. By the time we went to bed, it was around 3am Florida time and we were POOOOOOPED! 

Thankfully life has been a little less exciting than that day! 😉

Less exciting, but very busy. All three kids began sports. Avery and Jadon doing track and field, and Carter doing basketball. There were a few evenings where all 3 kids had meets or games on the same night at the same time, so we had to divide and conquer and enlist the help of the grandma's. 

Jadon as it turns out has some talent for pole vault! I'm excited to see where this takes him the next 3 years of high school. Avery surprised us and decided she really enjoyed doing track and wants to do it again next year! And Carter, well, he's a little baller! He loves all sports!

And I guess that brings us to today! Since the mask mandate was lifted, EVERYONE is sick all the time. Its like the viruses are playing catchup now that they had a 2 year break. I'm not loving this at all. I am currently the one in the house who is sick, Jadon has the cold also, but its been very mild for him. Carter was sick the week before last, so I'm guessing he gave us his cough/snot? I've been volunteering a lot at his school, and Tuesday when I was there, soooo many kids were coughing. 

So since I will probably not blog again for another 6 months or more, I'll give you a future run down. This summer will start off busy. The older kids are volunteering at the church kids camp, and Carter will be an attendee for it. Which reminds me of the big news! I QUIT MY JOB AT THE CHURCH!! It was hard to let go, but it has been soooooo good for us. I feel like I have my brain back and don't lay in bed at night thinking of what needs to be done or who I can get to cover a volunteer shift. And we've been able to attend church services too! It has been very freeing!

Anyways, back to summer, we are taking a family road trip down to California for a week. Our annual anniversary trip will be a staycation, as we just don't have the money to go somewhere this year since we went to Florida (And next year is our big 20th anniversary and we are going to Hawaii.) 
Jadon is going to get his permit 😱(pray for us!!!! and for him!!!!) Carters going to resume swimming lessons, Avery is going to do a free 3 day camp at the community college and also take a summer orchestra class. Adrianna is getting married in August too! And both Derek and Carter have July birthdays, I know Carter will want to have a party (since we have yet to have had a party for him.... 3rd child problems! 😄) And, he is GOING to learn to ride his bike. He's been too scared to ride his bike for years, so this summer we are getting over that fear (whether he wants to or not!) Wish us luck!