Well, we made it out of quarantine just in time for hybrid to be canceled. Not like it was a surprise but still a major disappointment. As I’ve watched my children hate online school I have spent hours trying to find a place with excellent schools that are open, that I would be willing to move to in January and have affordable short term housing. Doesn’t really exist. So, we soldier on and do things like take a day trip to Denver. After introducing Kate and Natalie to Voodoo Donuts we saw the traveling Dog exhibit and the remodeled Space exhibit at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. (We liked the campfire, fantasy spaceship and heat/cold temporary tattoos best.) We then drove to the newly opened In-N-Out Burger for lunch but were told by an employee the drive through line would be a five and a half hour wait! We headed over to the nearest Chick-Fil-A instead. In-N-Out Burger will have to wait for another day. Sadly, I had felt motion sick all morning and I assumed it was because Hubby was driving my new car to Denver for the fist time and I was driving home. The nausea grew intense and when we were about ten minutes away from reaching home I had to pull over and puke on side of the road. Well, you can guess that my family let me just sleep it off when we reached home. Turns out I had food poisoning from some leftover pork I had eaten on a night I had made something for dinner that had wheat and dairy in it. The weekend was pretty much ruined for me but Hubby was a great nurse and dad and even took my children to pick out a live Christmas tree. Our youngest three children decorated the tree all by themselves -- zero help! They went for matching (which in this case also meant minimal) and were delighted when I offered them candy canes to add. The dogs were happy too and ate the ones off the bottom of the tree! lol.
Since I neglected to make the dogs a grooming appointment the last time I picked them up, we began putting Piper's hair in a ponytail on top of her head so I could see her eyes (thanks, Danny!). Michelle thought she looked so cute she needed a shirt to finish the look and made her one out of an old shirt of mine. It was pretty cute to see Piper doing everyday things like taking a nap with her tongue out under the kitchen island. It was definitely reflective of the mood in our house having to return to online learning. I reported to my husband I felt like a dentist trying to get these kids to do what was expected of them. Just getting out of bed was a struggle for half of them they were so despondent. And, I can completely blame the next part of our story on virtual school as well. From what we were able to piece together later thanks to our Next camera, Danny had spent time outside doing homework on our porch (per my encouragement) and the front door didn't close securely when he came back in. Less than one minute after he came in, the dogs came out. Very long and depressing story short, as they were running around the neighborhood Piper bit not one but two strangers! so Piper now has a criminal record and is under house arrest. The advice from our dog trainer was to separate the dogs permanently due to ‘littermate syndrome’ and luckily my parents were willing to take Piper home. It is amazing how much happier my mom is having a dog at her house while my dad is at work all day, how well Piper has adjusted so quickly, how much more love Maisie gets daily, and how much better behaved both dogs are now. Although I am grieved (and was barely functioning/depressed for a few days) to not have Piper living in my house anymore (I miss her cute face and superior head tilt capabilities) I must admit I feel like my life got 10 times easier. I don’t think I realized just how naughty these two dogs were together until now. I am grateful both strangers were understanding and kind and not hurt badly and that Piper is where she needs to be and is blessing my parents’ home. I don’t know when that mortified feeling will go away that my dog hurt people every time I drive by the scene of the crime but maybe some feelings are there to remind us of lessons learned the hard way so they won’t be repeated.
The news the dogs were out came via a phone call from a neighbor as I was driving home from Fort Collins after Natalie's audiology test. Turns out Michelle and Natalie have "super hearing" aka Auditory Processing Disorder. Michelle's is more pronounced than Natalie's and explains one reason why she loved the quieter, smaller, more visual Waldorf school so much. Michelle hears EVERYTHING unless she is concentrating really hard. Natalie understands about 60% of what is being said when there is background noise and Michelle understands 30% when there is background noise. Michelle already has a special filter made just for her she wears in her left ear and says it helps. We are excited to get Natalie's in the mail and see if her filter will make life easier for her too. Now I can add creating 504s to the list of things I've never experienced before 2020! P.S. We highly recommend the pre-made gingerbread house kit from Costco. These 3 didn’t need any help. It also brought cheer to a difficult day.
In good news, birthday parades can be pretty fun! How we look forward to hanging out with friends like this more often. Being able to host book club to talk about Dickens’ The Christmas Carol felt almost normal, except for the fact we kept our masks on and stayed feet apart the entire 2.5 hours. (I also opened all the windows 20 minutes before and after we met.) I’ll take what I can get. We have been lucky to have such nice weather that this is the first time I met indoors for book club and we’ve only had to meet indoors for Activity Days as well. Imagine girls decorating Christmas cookies to be delivered to lonely members of the ward outdoors (and with masks on) in Colorado in December! Michelle found a great idea to store TsumTsum and then I happened to see this shelf at T.J. Maxx and now it makes me smile every time I see it on the playroom wall. I heart Disney and storage that can double as decor in such a fun space.
Happy half birthday, my favorite son! Thank you for wanting my favorite kind of cake to celebrate. I am so glad I get to raise you. I can’t imagine life without you! Hopefully the second half of being 11 is even better than the first half!
P.S. To entertain ourselves at home we have been watching shows like The Mandolorian season 2 (our favorite) and Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Disney+, Dwight in Shining Armor on BYUtv and Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix. At the end of almost every episode Natalie kept saying, “It's a hiffclanger!” She is my sunshine. Now whenever we are doing things like listening to the end of a chapter or podcast or tv show with a cliffhanger we all call them hiffclangers now because we think it sounds much better.
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