Week 2: January 11 – 17

Monday [1/11]:  I spent several hours today trying to find a piece of furniture we can put between the boys bed.  I even took it to photoshop and so I could insert each piece of furniture “into” the room.  Even after all that effort no decision has made.

Tuesday [1/12]:  Today I attempted a weight workout sent to me by Andrea and holy moly, it was rough.  Getting back into weights in going to be a painful.  I was sore for days.  Justin and I were able to watch some episodes of Friday Night Lights tonight.  We decided last week to purchase the DVD’s so we could watch the series without commercials.  We have five seasons to get through and were still in season one.  I had no idea that the series aired 14 years ago – talk about being a little late to the game!  Ha!  The lights flickered around midnight and then at 12:30am everything went completely dark.  Like SO dark!  It was pitch black outside without any street lights, etc…  We thought the power would come back quickly but turns out the wind was much stronger than we thought and nearly 300,000 households were out of power.  We haven’t lost power since 2012 so this was a bit of a shocker.

Wednesday [1/13]:  Obviously there can’t be any online school when there isn’t any power.  Justin had to go into the office since he’s slammed with deadlines.  He called mid-day and said that he missed being home and seeing everyone, even if he’s slammed with work when he's home he can pop in for a few minutes here and there.  I made some pancakes for the kids for breakfast and pulled out the solar powered lights I bought recently and put those outside to get as powered up as possible on a partly sunny PNW winter day.

Cell service was pretty spotty today which may have helped us convince Carly to join us for a game of Settlers.  It was a long, tight game and both Carly, Katie and I were strong contenders for victory, but Carly was able to pull out a win with a little help in the end from Drew.

 

I don’t mind so much not having power but having to worry about the food in the fridge and freezer is super stressful. We pulled out some of the ice cream in the freezer and ate that for lunch.  The kids didn’t mind.

How timely that this afternoon the battery organizer I ordered several days ago arrived.  I can’t even explain how much joy it brings me to have little things like this to make life a little more orderly.  Ha!

It’s so strange how different the evening feels without power.  There’s not nearly as much to do.  JKD played on the Nintendo since it still had some charge leftover.

Even just reading a book is trickier.

A very hygge moment

Carly and I watched Zoey’s Playlist on my iPad after JKD were in bed.  We got in my bed to keep warm.   I woke up around 2am and noticed that the power was back on so Justin and I were able to go downstairs and move everything we’d put outside in a cooler back into the fridge.  Thankfully we didn’t have any issues with food going bad during the 24 hours that the power was off.  We’ve decided to buy a generator though just to alleviate that concern in the future.  Always better to be prepared.

 

Thursday [1/14]:  The power was still out for some areas of our school district so they called it an asynchronous day which basically gave my kids another day off.  I made enchiladas today for dinner.  I started in the afternoon thinking I would just put them in the fridge until dinner, but by the time they were all prepared I was hungry enough to just pop them in the oven and eat early.  Justin came downstairs just long enough to put some on a plate and take back to his desk.  It seems like such an ordinary day but I remember there was a point in the day where I was making dinner, listening to music and I was struck with how good life was.  I’m grateful to feel that joy even in the ordinary.

 

Friday [1/15]: Carly had a couple friends over tonight.  It was the first time in ages (months?).  Her bestie’s family has been super covid careful and I think Carly just decided she’s tired of waiting around for that one friend and she make some plans without her.  

 

Saturday [1/16]: We had several freebies to redeem and saved them for this weekend with the hopes that Justin could join us.  First up was Jimmy Johns to redeem our free Little John sandwiches from this week’s T-Mobile Tuesdays deal.  Next was Chick-fil-A to redeem five free brownies that they offered to all customers this month.  Justin also used some of his points to get some nuggets, a sandwich and some fries just to top everyone off.  Since we were out I ran into Costco to pick up a few groceries.  This was the only time all week that I’d been anywhere (minus walking to the library with Katie and picking up some MOD pizza curbside).  Our last stop was Jamba where I redeemed a $4 off coupon also from the T-Mobile Tuesday app.  Justin worked the entire outing from the passenger seat and by this point was nearly out of power on his laptop so it was straight home and back to work (until after midnight) – which sadly isn’t unusual recently.

 

I finally got a picture of Katie with her “Leader of the Pack” certificate.  I’ll pop that into this post, but also put it here.  Proud of my girl!

Sunday [1/17]: Today was a hard day to get moving.  I’m getting tired of walking around my neighborhood day after day after day to close my circles.  Today is Day 318 of my streak so I can’t stop now.  Justin had to work all day, though he did join us for virtual sacrament meeting and helped Jason make his kung pao spaghetti for dinner, so there wasn’t going to be much of a chance of fitting in one of our late night walks tonight.  So I bribed the kids to join me along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail but told them there would be NO Pokémon.  As of late they will happily go for a walk if I let them capture Pokémon along the way, but I wanted our walk today to be tech-free.  Of course, they weren’t excited about that so I bribed them with ice-cream and time to play on the Nintendo Switch afterward.  Jason, Katie and Drew happily took me up on the offer.  I enjoyed the change of scenery and we chatted the whole time about all sorts of things so it was great.  We walked four miles and it still didn’t close my move ring – major bummer, but I guess that’s what happens if I only walk on flat trails.

 

Abigail’s 19th Birthday

It feels like I should be able to say that this is the first birthday I have missed of one of my kiddos, but if you recall I missed several of Drew’s early birthdays cause I was off traveling so that wouldn’t quite be accurate.  We always made up for the ones I missed and I guess we did that in this case as well.  As mentioned Justin and I took Abigail out to dinner at Cheesecake Factory last week to celebrate her birthday.  I sent her a funny postcard…

 

She has a thing for alpacas and this was one of my favorites…

I texted her a picture every 45 minutes throughout the day for each year of her life.  She and her roommates got a kick out of them.  It was so fun to look back at old pictures and hard to choose just one for each year.

While looking through old photos I stumbled across this picture she drew me – back in the day when she unashamedly expressed her admiration for me :)

She sent us several pictures that evening of her collecting several free birthday offers throughout the valley.  A perfect way for a Fletcher birthday celebration, right? – Ha!  

 

Here’s to Abigail’s last year as a “teen”ager!  I’m so grateful for this girl and so excited to see what her future holds.  It will be amazing!

Week 1: January 4 – 10

I’m going to try something new this year and break down posts into each week of the year.  I think it will help me stay on top of it and hopefully also give me a chance to document more than just the who, what, when details.  I’m so glad I posted daily during the COVID lockdown and even though this weekly idea will likely be too much detail for anyone but myself to be interested in I love the idea of being able to look back at even the mundane and remember this crazy, wonderful life of mine.  As I type this it’s already midway through January so the beginning of this month is already fuzzy, but here goes….

Monday [1/4]: Last night I got a text from my friend Stephanie asking myself and four other Auburn-ites if we could have a zoom call later that night.  She didn’t give any indication what it was about  (just “top secret stuff”) so my mind thought of all sorts of possibilities.  Thankfully nobody has cancer or any other terrible life changing event.  Our friend Tracy is turning 50 in March and her husband wants to fly all of us down to Arizona for a weekend to celebrate.  We’re we all in?  Heck yes! Our flights were all booked this morning and I’m so excited about it.  I’m a total homebody, but if I can travel I’m all for it!  

 

We wanted to take the family out to dinner for Abigail’s birthday before she headed back to school, but we’re still under heightened restrictions and indoor dining isn’t allowed.  I called Cheesecake Factory because they have outdoor dining; however, they wouldn’t seat more than four of us at a table so we decided to just take Abigail out without the other kids.  Dinner was great and we enjoyed having her to ourselves.  We talked about school, roommates and future plans.  We asked if she was still considering a mission and she said probably not so we talked about applying for business school for this fall.  She’s such a great girl and will thrive in whatever she chooses.

 

Tuesday [1/5]:  I set an alarm this morning which doesn’t happen very often.  The crazy part is that an alarm was necessary in order for me to leave the house at 9am.  I sure love sleeping in. Andrea and I went for a walk on the Snoqualmie Valley trail instead of doing a P90 class since our friend Kari, that teaches the class, has had COVID the past few weeks.  It seems like cases have really ramped up lately and we now know several people who have had it.  Until today it’d been several weeks since I’ve spent time with any of my friends.  We’ve definitely had lots of family time though and I’ve loved it.

 

Wednesday [1/6]:  I don’t really follow the news myself so I found out about the riots in DC today from my friends via Marco Polo.  To be honest I still don’t know much about it aside from that the Capitol was attacked by a mob of President Donald Trump supporters in an attempt to overturn his defeat in the election.  Things are so crazy out there.  Perhaps it’s inappropriate, but I got a kick out of this…

And this…

Thursday [1/7]:  Another alarm today because we were getting some drapes installed in our bonus room at 8am as well as having the designer that helped bring us some accessories to decorate the room with.  I’ll have to do a post about the transformation when it’s complete.  We’re still waiting on some chairs to arrive for our game table and then it will be done! 

 

Abigail went on a winter hike to Franklin Falls today with her friend Mckaye.  

When she was done she met us at the post office in North Bend to get the kids passports renewed (we had an appointment yesterday to do Abigail’s but didn’t bring her birth certificate with us so she had to take Carly’s appointment today)  Anyhow, Mckaye is starting online MTC next week and apparently over the course of the last few days and Abigail having a few different interactions with friends, Abigail’s decision about serving a mission moved from a probably NOT to a probably.  She told me this on the way home from the post office in her matter-of-fact way and I had a thousand questions I wanted to ask, but I realized she is still figuring this out and she will.  Either way I know she’ll find success and happiness, but I’ll admit I sure would love for her to serve a mission.  I think she would be an incredible missionary and learn and grow in ways she can’t otherwise.  I guess we just wait and see.  It feels like were becoming more spectators in her life than directors, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be I suppose.  Means we’ve raised a confident, responsible daughter.  I can’t wait to see what she decides.

This was Abigail’s last night at home before heading back to school.  She invited a few friends over to hang out.  They were upstairs in the bonus room until around midnight and then she moved the party downstairs thinking they wouldn’t be as likely to disturb the rest of us who were upstairs trying to sleep.  Little did she know that moving downstairs put her right under my bedroom.  I’m such a light sleep that I got very little sleep.  I think they finally called it a night around 3am!

 

Friday [1/8]: My third alarm of the week – ugh!  Abigail and I had to head out this morning by 9am to get her to the airport and also swing by Chick-fil-A for a few free breakfast items.  After dropping her off I hit up Walmart in Renton, which is sketchy on a normal day, but with everyone wearing face masks there was a moment I thought that nearly everyone in that store could mug me.  And a WinCo run which admittedly always makes me feel like I’m killing it at life – a stocked pantry and food on the ready is success in my book! 

 

Saturday [1/9]:  Katie and Drew got me out of bed this morning to diamond art with them and before I knew it it was 2pm! I don’t remember much else of the day, but at some point this weekend we watched the Disney movie Soul which was quite enjoyable.

Sunday [1/10]: Today was our one Sunday of the month that we get to attend church in person.  We stayed afterward so that Jason could be ordained a teacher.  Due to COVID our bishop didn’t participate in the ordinance so it was just Justin laying his hands upon Jason’s head.  I thought a picture to commemorate the event was appropriate – masks and all.

Tonight Carly and I squished together in one of the chairs in her room to watch a stake zoom meeting about mission prep.  I can’t believe that in only two years Carly will be the one deciding if she should serve a mission.  While we watched she got a private little zoom chat message from President Smith (who we know personally) asking her if she would say the closing prayer.  I thought it was funny that I was just as nervous as she was.  I took a picture of some of the slides the stake president shared.

Having just talked to Abigail about the real possibility of her putting in papers soon I was especially interested to hear what our stake president had to say.  I appreciated that he talked about the negative culture pressures of not serving a mission especially for women and that there continues to be a stigma about whether someone gets called to a domestic mission vs. foreign.  He also talked about the idea of youth waiting until COVID calms down and we get back to “normal” before serving.  He shared that because of COVID missionary work has been able to evolve and grow in amazing ways and advised the youth to not see that as a reason to delay serving.  He emphasized the spiritual growth someone can experience because of the concentrated focus of a full-time mission.  I’d love for all my kids to serve if they want to – so many blessings and goodness that will benefit them for their lifetime and beyond.

New Year's Eve

Our sleep schedule has been so different this year than it has in years past.  No early morning seminary, no school bus to catch or commute to make – we stay up much later and sleep in as much as we can.  Katie and Drew still wake up around 8am most mornings but the rest of like to sleep in if we can.  Anyhow, there was no question that we’d all stay up and ring in 2021 at PST and I knew the late night wouldn’t even phase Katie or Drew.  

 

Abigail had plans to have fondue with her friends at the Taylors house, but she asked if they could come back to our house afterward.  I was fine with that but told her she couldn’t commandeer any part of the house, but they were welcome to join us.  She showed up with her friends around 11pm and they stayed well past midnight.

 

I can’t even remember what we did all night.  Games, Nintendo Switch and plenty of food and snacks of course.  I spent quite a bit of time on my diamond art.  It was a fun, casual night and so fun to have all my kiddos under my own roof.  Not sure that will ever happen again.

Looks like my 2020 wasn’t as notable as it could have been.  I didn't even get a BINGO.

I’m grateful for this year.  I truly have enjoyed the slower pace which has allowed me more time with my family.  It was a gift I will always be grateful for.

Rest of December

Dec 16:  Jason got braces today!  He hasn’t complained about the expander he’s been wearing the past several weeks – the expander is responsible for the big gap between his two front teeth in the first picture (he’s holding the mold of his teeth before the expander).  He handled the discomfort of braces like a champ.  I think he’s just ready to get it done and over with.  

Dec 18:  I did a lot of baking today.  A triple batch of kamut sourdough bread and a batch of chocolate chip banana bread loaves.

I also tuned into my Aunt Cleone's funeral on YouTube.  She is the last of my Dad’s siblings to pass.  It was neat to see some of my cousins that I haven’t seen in years.

 

Today was the last day of school for JK&D before break.  Not much learning was done if any.  Drew’s class watched Polar Express online together complete with hot cocoa.

 

Abigail arrived home LATE tonight (actually early a.m. tomorrow).  She sent me a list of “food I want at home”

By the time she left on January 8th we’d tackled each and every one of them.  Thankfully my kids are still cooking a meal each week so that was a huge help.  Basically we ate A LOT of yummy food while she was here.  I loved it.  Food is a major love language for me so I took it as a personal challenge to make sure we had everything on her list while she was home.

Dec 20:  We played LOTS of games during break, especially Settlers of Catan.

Dec 21:  Drew’s apparently been making good use of the electric pencil sharpener I recently bought…

It snowed tonight which sent the kids outside to play with the neighborhood kids past bedtime.  In the end we got about 4 inches which was enough to stick around for Christmas.  I love a White Christmas that doesn’t interfere with anything we want to do!

Dec 22:  More settlers.  Drew now knows how to play so that’s fun to have him join us.

Both Jason and Drew have been in need of a haircut for a while now.  I was teasing Drew that he looked like Gollum with his long hair on the sides.  Justin pulled up a picture…

I guess that’s a bit of an exaggeration on my part.  

I tried to bribe Drew to let me take a picture of him standing / grimacing just like the Gollum picture but he wouldn’t go for it – ha!

 

I thought this chart of each state’s favorite Christmas movie was interesting and can’t believe that our state’s most popular is Die Hard – that’s nuts!

Dec 23:  We headed down to Grandma & Grandpa Fletchers this afternoon.  I think this is the first time we’ve been in their house since the whole covid thing started.  We’ve tried to be careful to keep them healthy so up until tonight had only met them outside.  We wore masks the whole time (except when we were eating Papa Johns).  We gave them an air fryer for Christmas.  We’ve used ours so much and Grandpa mentioned he really wanted one.

Dec 24:  Christmas Eve 2020

 

Dec 25:  Christmas Day 2020

 

Dec 26:  Day in Seattle

 

Dec 27:  One of the kids took this picture of Justin and I trying to relax

Dec 28:  Today I finally got all the emergency preparedness and medical supplies put away and inventoried that has been sitting around in the dining room for months.  Justin had a couple hard hats in an emergency backpack he was given at work from being on the T-Mobile Emergency Response Team.

Abigail made chicken parmesan tonight.  She made it back in April and I’m glad it made her food wish list – and I’m glad she was willing to make it for us.  So yum!

Dec 29:  I thought this email I got this morning was funny.  Have we really gotten to the point where getting your oil changed would be an exciting excursion?

JK&D have started working on the diamond art kits they got for Christmas.  I put a few pieces on the canvas and decided I needed to get myself one so I ordered a cute hippo one on Amazon and would have it in just a few days.

I got SEVERAL Christmas cards after Christmas this year.  Today Laura & Camden’s arrived and they were sent back on December 19th & 20th - that's 10 days!  The post office sure was slow this year.

We’ve had our leather sectional for 13 years and with our new couch arriving in just a few days it was time to sell it.  I knew though that there were several things that had slipped down under the cushions so I decided to remove just enough staples from the under fabric to get out anything underneath.  Just as I suspected there was a lot down there including some treasured Legos.  We stapled it back up and sold the couch online quite quickly.