May 2020

Although the state mandated quarantine lifted on May 1st nearly everything is still closed and there is no where to go.  Working from home and homeschooling continues, with another month and a half until school is out in mid-June.  We have been slowly adding people into our circle but still keeping it pretty tight.

We celebrated Mother's Day and my birthday this month, both of which were great, all things considering.

We literally haven't done anything all month, it's been unusual but pretty nice and relaxing.

We cancelled our Memorial Day camping trip to San Diego because the pool was closed and they were requiring masks to be worn in all common areas and that doesn't sound like a vacation to me!  Last minute O'Neill Regional Park in South County opened up and all of our camping group was able to get spots.  They opened at half capacity but didn't require masks or limit the number of people hanging out in groups, which was SO nice. This was our first time going out with people we haven't been around the past two months. It was so nice to have a feeling of things being back to normal.

My best friend, Whitney, closed out the month with the birth of my newest little boy, Calvin James.  How precious is he?!  Somehow he has blonde hair but looks just like daddy.

We ended the month with neighborhood pulled pork competition; it was so much fun.  All of the guys made their pulled pork however they wanted and then all of the wives taste tested it.  Unfortunately Robert didn't win but we're hopeful about the next challenge...a taco competition!

What we're looking forward to next month: the last day of school (woohoo!!), summer camp/activity plans (still undecided), Father's Day, a haircut!

April 2020

We have now been under "social distancing" quarantine/isolation for 2.5 weeks now and I need to make some notes so we don't forget these crazy times!

• Gas in HB is currently $2.35
• School campuses have been officially closed for the rest of the school year with the kids doing "distance learning" via computer and youtube
• California is on lockdown and we are only allowed to leave the house to pick up food, groceries and other necessary supples
• Tape on the floors at grocery stores and other (open) businesses to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other
• Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the stores
• Non-essential stores and business are under mandatory closures; very limited amount of stores remain open. Restaurants can only provide takeout (including alcohol!) and delivery.
• Parks, trails, playgrounds and beaches are closed
• Entire sports seasons are cancelled/postponed (including March Madness!)
• Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events have all been cancelled/postponed
• Weddings, family celebrations and holiday gathers (including Easter!) have been cancelled
• Churches are closed
• What started as no gatherings of more than 250 people reduced to 50 people to 10 people and now you are not to socialize with anyone outside your household
• Shortage of masks and protective gear for healthcare workers, shortage of ventilators for patients
• Panic buying set in and toilet paper, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes are hard to find
• We are all wearing masks when we go out of the house

The quarantining, state lockdown continues through the end of April so we are all at home with not much to do.  During the first couple weeks of March we had a strict schedule but once we realized that this was going to go on for much longer, that sort of went out the door.  Our mornings are spent with schooling and after lunch the girls ride their bikes and play outside.

Mila officially started distance learning on April 1st.

Mila's teacher has been amazing and hosts two Zoom meetings a week, one on Monday morning and one on Friday morning, with office hours every day. Almost all of the assignments she posts is available via a web video or her hosting a YouTube video to teach Math. This is really helpful when I am trying to work from home because I am more of the facilitator and not the teacher.

Nellie is not interested in any kind of homeschooling. We did find the app, ABC Mouse, that she likes so, if we are lucky, we can get her to still long enough for an hour or so of that.  She's been watching more TV than I would like, but hey, crazy times.

Nellie lost her first tooth this month and was SO excited. The tooth fairy brought her two $2 bills, which she wanted to spend immediately!

We have been breaking the quarantine rules since the beginning, not knowing how serious it was going to get. The girls have been playing withour neighbor, Leilani, since we were all sent home March 13th and we have been hanging out with her parents as wel; we have been openly communicating that we're not hanging out with other people and neither are they.  Her dad is the only one leaving the house for work but he works a boat captain with only one other person. It's really been a blessing for our sanity to have other friends to commiserate in person with and for the girls to be able to play together in the afternoon; I honestly can't imagine our mental health if we weren't able to do that. We would all go insane!

The girls have been getting along amazingly well. We've never been more thankful we have the two of them to keep each other entertained! Both girls are being very attached to having both Robert and I at home and they spend a lot of time loving on Roscoe. If/when things get back to normal I am anticipating a lot of separation sadness/anxiety.

I started a garden this month to pass my time so we will see how my green thumb fares. Hopefully I don't kill everything.

Robert and I are both still working from home full time; he will be until at least the end of May and me, indefinitely, as of now.

What we're lookng forward to next month: Mother's Day, Mommy's birthday, Whitney's Due Date!!!, our Memorial Day weekend camping trip to San Diego (if it doesn't get cancelled)

March 2020

Oh how we will never forget March 2020.  Prior to all the craziness, Mila had a skate night at school and ran into her teacher, Mrs. Berkers:

We had dinner with David Stewart and Nellie drew a portrait of all of us as dinner!

And then...

March started off like any other month, busy around here with gymnastics for Nellie, cheernastics for Mila and workout classes for Mom. Robert was up on a federal wire and planned to work every Saturday and we just put the finishing touches on our bathroom remodel planning, which was set to start mid-month.  There was some sort of fast spreading illness going on in China, but we didn't pay too much attention to us because it didn't really affect us...until it did.  After China, many people in Italy and Spain started getting sick with a few Americans as well, in San Francisco and Washington first.  After a few days/weeks Italy and Spain took drastic steps and shut down entire cities and eventually the whole country.

In America, everything moved quickly and we were told to be on high alert, washing our hands a lot and staying home if we were sick around the second week. Everything changed on Friday, March 13th (ahh!) when they closed the schools in California.  This created quite the problem for parents but Robert and I, short on help, planned to alternate care...but then that changed 3-4 times with everything that was going on in the city/state/country and new restrictions that were put in place.  Robert was sent home from work and told to shelter in place while the city figured out what to do with the detectives; I was put on a part time work schedule and the girls started what would eventually be a 2.5 break from school while the teachers figured out their next moves.  March Madness and then the NBA games were cancelled, baseball's spring training was postponed and we ended up having to cancel so many of our trips (Kansas for Spring Break, camping for Easter, Robert's INIA work trip to Kentucky and my work award trip to Miami).  Around March 20th all of California was put on mandatory lockdown, nearly all business (except essential businesses like grocery stores, police/fire departments, hospitals, etc) were closed and all workers sent home, most without pay.

Robert and I are very lucky that we are both considered essential workings and, therefore, we are both working and/or getting our full salary.  The girls entertained each other and found things to keep them busy.  We found out at the end of March the school campuses wouldn't reopen for the remainder of the school year and that on April 1st Mila would start distance learning via computer and YouTube.  Because Nellie isn't in school yet we sadly ended up pulling her out of Grace and plan to work with her on PreK and Kinder worksheets.

Through all of the craziness we have been able to find some fun moments...we went and got "to go" ice cream in celebration of Mila's half birthday...

...and Mila read William a bedtime story via FaceTime with daddy.

Not knowing how crazy it was about to get, we stated our bathroom remodel on March 17th with the girls bathroom up first. We ran into a couple of hiccups (the tile store closed before we picked up our order! Luckily it reopened for pickups a couple days later) but it was done by the end of the month and we are SO happy with it!  The before/after pictures are great but the video really does it justice!

What we're looking forward to next month: a couple of Zoom meetings? There's literally nothing else on our calendar!

February 2020

The Chiefs won the Super Bowl! How crazy is that?! It may sound funny for me to be so excited since I am a Raiders fun BUT I am also a Kansas City fan and it makes me so happy to see everyone SO excited and for the world to see how great KC is.  Plus a) I will be the only one that's happy if the Raiders ever win and who wants to celebrate alone and b) Nellie is a HUGE Chiefs fan!  She was crying at the beginning of the game when the 49ers had scored and the Chiefs hadn't, and then she watched practically the whole game with us even though we were at her friends house.  Prior to the game Mila was a self-proclaimed Steelers fan (what??) but after Kansas City won she decided she was a Chiefs fan (#bandwagon).

Robert and I went to a Dashboard Confessional concert which, coincidentally, was the first concert we went to when we started dating.

Nellie got her chance at a Daddy/Daughter dance and was so excited to pick out her outfit for the evening.  She had so much fun at the dance and said that slow dancing with Daddy was her favorite part.

Mila went to one of those wine and painting classes (minus the wine) and she did a great job! She's way better than her mom, let me tell you!

She now has it hanging in her room, across from her bed, so she can "wake up smiling every morning that her panda is looking at her."

We spent President's Day weekend in Indio with Nana and Papa; it was a little cooler than the 100 degree summer temps we are used to but the girls had a blast and we still spent the whole afternoon in the pool! (We also watched the movie Wonder while we were there...it was so good! A perfect family movie).

We ended the month with a visit from my PREGNANT BEST FRIEND and her husband! They decided to come out to California for their babymoon and were so sweet to spend the weekend with us before heading off to Catalina for a few days.  Can't wait to meet this little boy!!!

We're remodeling our bathrooms soon and I am seriously considering putting this tile somewhere in the shower....thoughts?

What we're looking forward to in March: Nellie's school talent show and MARCH MADNESS!!!! Which is the only thing I ever plan in March if you're wondering why this seems like a light month  :) Rock Chalk.