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Category Archives: Owen

Christmas Eve with our bubble!

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If I haven’t mentioned it, we have created a bubble with our good friends Anna and David. Each family quarantined for two weeks and we always wear masks when we are with anyone outside our bubble—and even try to avoid prolonged visits with anyone outside the bubble. So we do hang out with each other a lot.

We usually share Hello Fresh dinners but decided to splurge tonight on not one, not two, but three orders of our favorite octopus appetizer from our favorite restaurant (Primo) and a homemade charcuterie board. That was seriously all Tom, Anna, David, and I wanted. Easy peasy.

We didn’t take one single picture of our amazing dinner, but it was delicious. We might also have drank an entire batch of Dave’s amazing rum punch and watched Christmas Chronicles with the kids. I’m not naming names but someone fell asleep.

Then we got ready for Santa!

We left out Girl Scout cookies because Katie texted Santa and asked if he liked them and gave him a choice and he picked the chocolate and peanut butter ones. The candy cane is for the reindeer.

I absolutely love the letters both kids left for Santa. Owen thanked him for being awesome (and gave him a spot for a Robux code) and Katie wanted Santa to write his name.

Owen’s full note.

And this was where Maggie was. Maybe sneakily waiting for Santa, too?

Woodland Book with an Educator

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Tonight was a fundraiser for the food bank—Woodland teachers and administrators read their favorite books on Google meets! Every 15 minutes you’d switch to someone new! We listened to Katie’s current teacher and her second grade teacher, Owen’s third grade teacher, the Elementary Principal, and a friend who is a teacher! We loved it, and the past teachers remembered them and loved seeing them, too!

You guys. Today was a day.

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I had grand plans then life happened.

  • I spent too much time refereeing kid drama (today proved they get into trouble when I’m not sitting at the table with them). Plus learned they’ve both snuck their devices which should be an instant loss for a week but…I was so overwhelmed with everything else I forgot.
  • I spent 4.5 hours with Apple tech support (chat and phone!) trying to figure out a bizarre password issue.
  • I had multiple random technology and business spreadsheet issues (that necessitated asking a math teacher friend for help).
  • Discovering WHEN I WENT TO PLACE MY MONTHLY ORDER at 10pm that my business credit card was expired and the new card supposedly arrived a month ago but I’ve not seen it (so I got to hunt for that—unsuccessfully I might add—tonight).
  • And then I discovered that one of the kids iPads is literally covered in something sticky.

The best part about today? It’s over in 21 minutes.

I just opened an email from owen’s teacher.

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I wanted you to know that Owen is struggling to attend math class. Lately, he has been coming to class, turning his camera off and not responding when I check on him. For example, his icon is in my class right now but he is not responding to me when I am trying to help him. Anything you can do to encourage him to stay with the class would be appreciated.

UGH.

That was from 9:19am when I was putting on my shoes right behind him. And saw it on the screen. But couldn’t see if his camera was on or what he was listening to with headphones on.

So needless to say we had a HUGE discussion with him about it. Especially after his poor grades last marking period (two As, two Bs, a C, and a D). He hasn’t been doing his homework, he hasn’t been asking for help, and apparently he hasn’t been active in class.

I don’t want them in school because that’s just not safe but this remote learning sucks 100%.

Trick or treating Covid-style!

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We weren’t sure what trick or treating was going to look like because we knew a lot of people wouldn’t be participating but we told the kids we’d walk around the neighborhood to check it out.

Our treat table.

There were a lot of creative solutions to managing candy delivery. Most were just on tables in some way, but we saw a bunch of chutes, some spread in the grass, and one on a truck bed (below).

I think Halloween may be forever changed
after Covid Style 2020 Halloween. The general consensus among moms I talked to was that we kinda liked it more than usual Halloween! I loved not ringing doorbells or wondering who was/wasn’t participating (the city had delivered red and green signs for people to put up to show if they were participating or not and a lot of people used them so that was nice) but most people were outside watching anyway. There were no huge groups of kids. All kids we saw were being really respectful and gingerly taking a piece of candy or a bag or whatever. And we loved how creative a lot of the houses were!

The weather was also gorgeous! We started with our winter coats but they got unzipped pretty quick.

We were out for about an hour and then as we were almost home we saw some neighbors around a fire pit in their driveway so we headed over to say hi—they are the guys Tom has played poker with but we haven’t really met the wives so we thought it was a good time to hang out. So we had a few drinks and visited while we sent the kids on without us to hit more of the neighborhood. (It’s so wonderful they can be out on their own! They came back and checked in with us a few times but pretty much were on their own for two hours!)

Then we left there to go to a nighttime outdoor candy hunt at our friend’s house—which had been planned in case trick or treating was a big fail. We literally just threw candy in the back yard and let them hunt with headlamps and flashlights while we had mulled cider and s’mores and visited around the fire.

Halloween parade Covid-style

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The Primary and Elementary schools had a drive by parade today—teachers and staff dressed up and parents could bring their costumed kids through.

Sounds nice and easy right? Whoa. It was a traffic nightmare. The school is less than five minutes away and it took us an hour round trip! I think the turnout was much larger than they expected PLUS they had both schools (across the street from one another) at the same time.

The kids also made me shake my head in frustration. I thought it would be totally cool to let them sit in the back with the gate open so everyone could see their costumes. Nope, neither wanted to do it. Like AT ALL. And once we got there Owen refused to put his mask on because he was afraid people were going to make fun of him. And I told Katie she could hang out of the window to wave and she refused. Ugh. Kids!!

This might be the best forest preserve we have been to yet.

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We had to go pick up a Facebook purchase for Katie’s room and I knew we’d be close to some parks…and it was finally a sunny day…so we dragged the whole family along. We hadn’t been here before but we will definitely be back! Lots of parking, lots of great trails (paved and wooded), pavilions, bathrooms, a lake…and a ton of PokĂ©mon stops!!

We got Boo’ed!

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So one night a few days ago the doorbell rang and we didn’t think much of it since Amazon always rings the bell and we get lots of deliveries. But the kids usually run out to see. Today Katie did and said she saw a kid running away—but he left a bag of Halloween goodies with a note that we had to pass it on! We looked at our camera feed and saw the kid but we have no idea who it is! Well the kids were super excited for TREATS! CANDY! SLIME! and definitely wanted to Boo other people.

Thankfully Tom stepped up and did it with them because while I did want to be a part of the neighborhood, I didn’t really want to do all of it. He took them shopping. He supervised the building of the baskets. My contribution was printing out the instruction. Then Tom took them to the houses where they successfully delivered the baskets without being seen!

 

I just can’t even with the lying.

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One of the kids cut this tumeric this morning. Both flat out deny it. I know it’s not a big deal but OMG I am furious that they can’t just admit it.

I didn’t even get mad. I told them they weren’t in trouble. I wanted whoever it was too help me decide how and when to use it. They both still denied it.

I told both of them that I didn’t care that it was cut but that because we had discussed the staining issue last night (when they first saw it and asked what it was, I told them how badly it could stain everything) I wished they would’ve washed the knife. They both still deny it.

Fast forward to that evening.

We talked to them both. We said no one was getting in trouble, we weren’t mad, we just want them to tell the truth. Both still deny it.

So then we told them they needed to talk to each other and then tell us together who did it. After about five minutes they both said they didn’t do it. GRRR.

The thing is that it’s ALL THE TIME about stupid and annoying stuff, nothing that’s a huge deal. Things that happen all the time?

  • Peeing in the toilet and not flushing.
  • Candy wrappers on the floor.
  • Hidden food.
  • Opened and eaten bags of candy.
  • Glasses on every surface

It’s exhausting.

I took “school pics” this morning since it’s that time of year.

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Owen came downstairs in a brand new blue shirt and jeans. Bestill my heart. Of course there was hair and outfit drama with Katie…so that was fun.

She was in such a state that I told her we’d try her photos another day and then headed out in the yard (I made him take one photo with the collar up)…

And then it was down the street to the park.

Where Katie finally joined us. In a different outfit and a much better mood!

I told Katie to tickle him…

Tried to get them both jumping. It was a riot.

Her turn…

Back at home…

Another baseball championship!

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First games of the season were so hot you couldn’t stand it. Today? We’re in winter coats, gloves, and blankets!

They won 13-3 in six innings!

Owen getting his trophy!

We didn’t get any great team pics this season due to social distancing and temperature.

It was the last game together for these boys. Aden is transferring to a different city team and Jackson is moving to travel ball. Jackson’s dad is the head coach which means he’s moving to be with his son…so that means Tom has decided to be the head coach next season!!

Anxiety updates.

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So we’ve been noticing some questionable behavior from Owen lately—blowing up more than usual, getting agitated more easily, etc. We thought maybe his meds needed adjusting or maybe just something else was going on. He takes his pills on his own and we’ve been asking him if he’s still taking them and he always says yes. We knew he needed to get a new counselor so after some of the major blowups I finally worked through that and got an appointment set up…

And then. After like a week of seemingly daily issues (that result in us talking to him for an hour at a time and us going out of our minds with his attitude) we discovered he has not been taking his pills for a long time. We found all the pill bottles and they were FULL. (We get auto delivery so he should have had one almost empty bottle. We have two full 90-day bottles.) Ugh.

Needless to say that explained everything.

So we talked about that. And he said he just thought he might not need them anymore because things had been going well. So we could then tell him that things had been going well (better) because of the pills. So now we are taking them together at the same time every morning.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you… I’ve started taking an anti-anxiety med, too. I’ve just been overly stressed with the new house, remote learning, work, Covid, etc… Plus moreso I was just sooooo tired of yelling at the kids all. the. time. for everything that I thought maybe I needed something to take me down a notch. It’s been two weeks and I think it’s helping—so we’ll see. I don’t anticipate it being long-term but for right now I think it’s a good thing. Plus I think it helps Owen to see that even if you think someone has it all together you never know what’s going on behind the scenes. And if Mom does it, he can, too.

Owen’s first pulled tooth!

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His orthodontist recommended getting two teeth pulled so after a few delays here we are. He was nervous but handled it like a champ. This was about 15 minutes in while he was numb before they actually started—he just wanted to come out and say hi.

Unfortunately, one of the teeth gave her some problems and she couldn’t remove it so she referred us to an oral surgeon. She seems to think maybe the roots of the baby tooth are wrapped around the adult tooth. Yikes.

Owen was not thrilled with that prospect so we’re trying to talk up how cool it is to be knocked out and we think he’s okay now. Thankfully we are getting in next week so he doesn’t have much time to think about it.

6th grade physical

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The required sixth grade physicals were still required even though they aren’t technically at school…so off we went. It was really almost eerie walking through an empty hospital. Especially since the parking garage was as full as usual—where was everyone?!

Owen also had to get three shots which he wasn’t thrilled about but at least he just sucks it up and does it without issue.

Let’s remember how sweet she can be.

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I took this picture so on an upcoming day when she’s being a little brat, I can point out to Tom that there was a point at which she was being cute and sweet.

We did have Anna take a family photo later on the walk to prove we actually got out of the house.

Going off trail to explore the lake. They were so excited you’d think they’d never seen water before.

His turn…and now he gets it.

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Tom was home for the long weekend so I told him he got ALL tech questions and school issues today. He kind of said WHATEVS and planted himself on the couch playing video games.

School starts at 9.

8:55—Owen discovers he has no power on his entire workstation. No lights, no Chromebook charging, nothing. Katie (across the room) is fine. Whaaaaat?! Tom looked at me like AYFKM? I just smiled, chuckled, and said welcome to my Life.

While he was troubleshooting, I was getting Owen set up on my laptop (I kinda wanted to make Tom do that as well so he could truly experience what my days are like, but I didn’t want to be that cruel). Then, because he was messing around with the breaker box, he cut power to Katie’s station (and Chromebook!) so the WiFi went out and she was dropped from her class. And of course could not reconnect. SO PANIC AND DRAMA ENSUED.

Time? 9:03am

Me: Yep. That’s about right.
Hubby: ——

Turns out one half of the wall outlet Owen was plugged into just up and died. Completely random. You can’t make this shit up.

Then there was drama with Katie’s headphones (every damn day) and Owen was caught watching YouTube. 臘‍♀️

Needless to say Tom has newfound respect for me and promises not to complain about my daily texts I send him when he’s not here.