COVID Day 100 – Saturday, June 20

Today flew by!  I slept in until nearly 10am – perhaps to some that would be outrageous, but to me it is glorious.  Justin and I decided to get in some exercise early today so I wouldn’t have to worry about it later in the day.  Jason, Katie and Drew rode their bikes around the Lake Alice loop and Justin and I walked. Jason wasn’t excited about being forced to exercise to earn electronics so he took off on his own and was home long before the rest of us.  With Katie and Drew on bikes Justin and I had to walk pretty fast to keep them in our sights, we even had to run at times and on other occasions they would turn around and bike back to us.  

At one point I ended up riding Drew’s little bike – I didn’t think I would be able to manage…

We have these foxglove flowers ALL OVER the place. Katie thought they were so pretty.

We’ve walked and biked the loop many times and this time deiced to circle back to the property some members of our old ward are building a house on.  I knew they would be working on putting in their porch today and I wanted to say hi and check out the place in person. They even gave us a tour of the inside. It is a beautiful custom home on five acres.

Our detour got us home much later than expected.  I quickly showered and then we headed to the church for the drive-thru ice-cream activity the primary had organized to kick of the start of summer. 

Abigail was gone all day celebrating her bestie, Kalli’s birthday – Abigail had her first sleepover last night so they could go to IHOP at 3am.  Carly babysat all day today for two different families. Over the last three days she’s made nearly $400 by babysitting – ka-ching!

Abigail had signed the two of us up to deliver donuts to the men in the ward for Father’s Day, but since she was busy with friends Katie went with me.  I was so grateful that Katie was willing to do all the running up to the doors and all I had to do was drive around.

Earlier this week Abigail’s tennis partner – Kassi decided to throw a prom tonight and invited Abigail and her group of friends to join the fun.  The girls quickly ordered dresses and were excited to get all dressed up.  Only one of their guy friends decided to come.  Lucky guy!

Abigail asked me to take pictures beforehand and it was my first big event with my new camera – I love it!  Such an improvement from my old camera.  I spent the rest of the night editing photos so everyone could have them if they wanted to share or use them on social media.  

Glad Abigail and her friends were able to have one final Senior celebration. Sounds like they had an amazing time, saw a lot of friends and topped off the evening with a firework show under the stars.  

• June 20: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 28,680 with 1,270 deaths.   

COVID Day 99 – Friday, June 19

I was up early this morning.  Not on purpose, of course, but Justin left our door open this morning when he got up to start working and both Abigail and Carly had to be up and out the door early (Abigail to take Grandpa Fletcher to an appointment in Renton and Carly to babysit all day) so I heard everything.  Bummer. Gave me time though to read scriptures and start my day slowly so it’s not all bad.  We finally finished the puzzle we’ve been working on for the past week or so.  It’s a 1000 piecer with lots of little details.

Today was technically our last day of school, but there wasn’t anything to it.  JKD and I left the house around 10:30am to find a spot along the parkway for the Senior Parade that was starting at 11am.  We were near the end of the parade route so we knew we’d be waiting awhile so we came prepared with umbrellas, snacks and sunscreen.

Abigail was near the end of the parade of cars – once she got moving we were able to track her by looking at her phone location so that was helpful.  There wasn’t supposed to be any decorations hanging from people cars, but it wasn’t at all enforced.  Some people went all out. Someone even hired a small plane to fly over with a long congratulatory banner flying behind it.  There are a lot more convertibles and jeeps in Snoqualmie that I would’ve thought – that or people rented a fun open car for the day.  Some of her friends had car markers so they were able to decorate our car a bit.  We attached a BYU flag to the back of the car to show she is BYU Bound!  Justin was Abigail’s designated driver and she rode along the parkway standing up through the sunroof.  

This picture makes me laugh – there were three photographers along the course and this is the ONE that we have from one of them.  

It was so fun to see hundred of Seniors celebrated by our community.  It was loud – firetrucks, emergency vehicles, police cars, school buses – all blaring their horns, waving and flashing lights. Easily over a thousand people came out to support the class of 2020.  

Justin needed to go pickup his Dad from his appointment after the parade.  We (me and JKD) had some time back home to get the house cleaned up – it’s amazing how trashed it can get so quickly.  Katie was incredibly helpful, Drew only wanted to do the chores he drew from the summer boredom buster jar, and Jason was pretty meh about the whole clean up process.  Abigail and her friends really wanted to watch the virtual graduation ceremony together and the Taylors were gracious enough to invite our families over to watch it together.  So we whipped up a pasta salad to take as our contribution.

The ceremony started at 4:30pm and would only be aired once – if you wanted to watch it again or later, you’d have to buy it.  Several weeks ago the seniors were filmed walking across a fake stage to pick up their diploma in front of a green screen.  These clips were compiled into a ceremony along with some speeches and other clips.  Given the circumstances it was well done, but definitely cheesy at times.  I have no doubt we wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun cooped up in a stuffy arena for a traditional ceremony.  It was so fun to watch with these other three families.

After the ceremony the kids played outside – spike ball, water balloons, etc… JK&D had a blast!  They haven’t had hardly any interaction with people outside of our family for so long.  It was great to see them having so much fun and I loved that the older kids included them. 

I’m so proud of my senior for her positive attitude through all the events that have been cancelled and grateful that in the end she feels like she was celebrated in a way that she will cherish and remember forever.  It was such a great day.  It wasn’t that long ago this girl that made me a Momma was graduating from preschool.

• June 19: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 28,225 with 1,265 deaths.   Today we moved into Phase 2 which increases restaurant and retail limits and allows parks to reopen.  Three counties remain in phase 1, 2 in a modified phase 1, 19 in phase 2 and 15 in phase 3.

COVID Day 98 – Thursday, June 18

I got behind on my journaling this week so I don’t remember much about today.  There was some Legoing involved – it had been a few days and I was glad to make some progress.

Justin wanted to go for a bike ride in the afternoon. I was still really sore from my workout on Tuesday so I told him I’d go but wouldn’t ride home.  I stayed true to my word and even took the steeper route home up death hill so I wouldn’t even be tempted to try to ride up it.  I was exhausted when we got home and relaxed in my hammock for a little while before showering.

Carly made dinner tonight after babysitting – flatbread pizza is an easy meal for put together especially when your Mom premakes the chicken for you.  Carly avoids any meals that require her to cook meat.

Drew and I legoed a bit after dinner before I headed over to my friend Andrea’s house to pow-wow with some girlfriends.  Tonight the topics were heavy – politics, BLM, church policies, etc…  Love that I have friends who can discuss a wide variety of topics – I love their perspectives and acceptance of others.

Justin apparently took K&D to the courts to play some basketball.  Jason says he has missed being able to play, but for some reason unbeknownst to me he didn’t join them.  Hopefully he’ll be able to get together with friends soon.

• June 18: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 27,601 with 1,255 deaths.   

COVID Day 97 – Wednesday, June 17

This morning was great.  I didn’t wake up feeling very refreshed – getting to bed after 1:30am will do that I suppose.  But I was able to have some quiet time in my room before starting the day.  This gives me time to read scriptures and catch up on some emails and Marco Polos.

I also knew getting out of bed wouldn’t be easy…

I spent the morning on the computer catching up on some journaling while Drew and Katie worked on school stuff.  

Katie and I went down to her school at noon to pick up her school supplies and return her library books – again such weird circumstances.  

I spent hours this afternoon working on cancelling some flights and lodging for our Europe trip.  Some went smoothly and some not so much.  So many loops to go through.

Katie and I made chicken pot pie for dinner tonight – it is a family favorite, but it does take quite a bit of time to prepare.  We love the homemade biscuit topping.

The grey wigs I ordered arrived and tonight I tried them on.  I was surprised how not terrible the long wig was.  I mean the style is totally not me, but it didn’t age me as much as I thought it would.

The hairstyle on the short wig was even worse – much more old lady-ish – though I think the hair color is a closer match to what my hair would look like.  I may just keep this one and use my flat iron to try to tame the severe curl towards the face look and see if that helps.  It might be nice to have a grey wig handy – ha!

• June 17: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 27,192 with 1,245 deaths.   Gov. Inslee called Yakima Valley the ‘epicenter’ of the state’s current outbreak.  They have the second highest total of cases in the state after our much larger King County and their hospital rates per capita is 8 times higher than King County.

COVID Day 96 – Tuesday, June 16

Today was busy – busier than I’ve been in the last 3 months.  I had a morning workout at Andrea’s.  She’s starting a new daily workout program for the next month and each day focuses on a different muscle group.  Today was lower body and it was tough.  I won’t join her everyday cause that’s insanity, but hopefully a couple days a week when she gets back from vacation in a few weeks.

I had just enough time afterward to shower and get dressed to head down to my hair appointment.  I took this picture as I waited for my hair lady to finish her appointment before me. This is how my hair looked most of COVID – when I let it air dry the ends tend to flip out.

Even though I dye my roots myself regularly it sure felt great to get them touched up by a professional and get my hair spruced up and cut.  Of course since I was already out and about I ran some errands. Tint some paint so Carly can paint the boys room.  Pick up my 2019 free birthday sandwich from Jersey Mikes.  A Costco run and then a grocery stock-up at Winco.  It was nice to be out and I enjoyed listening to tunes on the drive home.  We got the groceries unloaded and then everyone got ready to head to the graduation parade the valley wards organized for all the 2020 graduates.

The graduates were in the church and called out by name to the cheers of their family members.

Each graduate had a little table in the parking lot to showcase some of their high school memorabilia.  

As cars entered the parking lot they were given a paper that included a picture and little blurb about each of them.  Abigail had submitted the following:

“Abigail was a part of multiple clubs and athletic teams during her high school years.  She played volleyball at Mount Si her freshman and junior year and was a 3 year varsity athlete on the tennis team, 4 years in total. She was also a member of National Honor Society serving over 230 hours. Abigail currently works at Peak Sports and Spine Physical Therapy where she has worked the last 2 1/2 years. Abigail is also graduating with an Associate’s Degree in Arts and Science by participating in the Running Start program through Bellevue College the past two years. She will be attending Brigham Young University - Provo in the fall.”

I wasn’t sure what to expect of the evening, but it was a great way to celebrate these young adults and ended up being really fun.  There was a steady stream of cars for the entire hour and it was fun to see some ward members since we haven’t really seen anyone since March.

Carly didn't last long and soon after left with Chloe to hangout with friends

• June 16: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 26,784 with 1,226 deaths.   The drop in death tolls is a result of reclassifying cases whose death had nothing to do with the respiratory disease even though they’d tested positive (suicide, homicide and overdose deaths).

COVID Day 95 – Monday, June 15

Katie and Drew joined me this morning as I was waking up and immediately ushered me into the bonus room to work on Legos – and there I stayed most of the day, clear up until Abigail declared dinner was ready.  It’s insane.  Really, I understand that.  

I took a short break in the afternoon to take Jason down to his school to pick up the stuff he’d left in his locker and return his choir and basketball uniforms. Everything was done curbside.  The staff had cleaned out everyone’s lockers and had them bagged and labeled.  They were standing outside wearing face masks and we passed items through open windows. Such a strange end to the school year.

Abigail made sweet & sour chicken for dinner – it was so yummy.  

I asked Carly to braid my hair one last time before I get it cut short again. It’s not long by any means, but long enough to get two little, grey braids.

• June 15: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 26,531 with 1,231 deaths.   King County applied for phase 2 of Safe Start recovery plan which would allow more re-opening of businesses.  The state is expected to process the application this week, and King County could move to Phase 2 as early as Friday.

COVID Day 94 – Sunday, June 14

We had sacrament first thing in the morning – well, first thing is around 10am since most of us are sleeping in these days – and actually there was a bit of Legoing while Justin got sacrament ready and a lot of Legoing afterward.  I gave the lesson today, with minimal assistance from Drew (it was his “turn”) – I thought it went well.  We talked about the difference between having a hard heart vs. a soft heart.  I used some playdoh/clay and a ceramic bowl Carly had made and kilned at school as an analogy.  

Abigail went to a memorial for a classmate that died unexpectedly last month from an unknown heart condition.  So sad. I can’t even imagine.

As mentioned Legoing was my activity of choice today.  We discovered we have some fun sets amongst the pieces given to us and I was able to get one 90%-ish complete before dinner.  I think I might actually order the missing pieces from these sets so they can be complete.  Probably not super cheap to buy individual pieces but I’d love not to have any gaps in the sets.  We’ll see. 

This afternoon we got a text from the varsity tennis coach with this picture.

Probably taken on one of the few practices the team had before the season was cancelled. I’m still pretty sad about that. Abigail had been taking lessons all year and I would have loved to see her compete in one final season. The coach is new this year and from the brief interactions I had with him I think he would’ve been great for the girls and really helped them improve their game and have an amazing season.

Carly made fettuccine and homemade pretzels for tonight for dinner.  While she prepped Justin and I went on a few new walks with Jason and Katie.  First was a stroll along the river by a King County nature park and then Justin thought we had enough time to wander above the Snoqualmie Falls for a bit.  Of course it took longer than he thought and we were a bit late for dinner, but no harm done.

Katie’s sucking on a tic-tac "power pellet" here

We watched a movie tonight as an ENTIRE family – which is rare.  We’ve worked our way through the High School Musical series so we could watch Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure.  It was a fun show and much in line with the rest of the series.  We cooked up some brownies to enjoy with ice-cream as a movie treat – yum!

We got to bed around midnight and as I was getting ready my grey roots were so noticeable. I got to thinking how nice it would be to not have to maintain my darker color and whether I should let myself go grey. Grey/Silver hair has actually become popular and some younger woman pay big bucks for silver hair and I have it naturally.  Granted I’m not young and I don’t have a young face, but I still wondered if I could pull it off.  I have a hair appointment on Tuesday so I needed to make a decision quick.  I searched for some pictures online and found some great ones and some not so great ones.  

Earlier this month I had found an app that would color the hair on a picture and this was the result – not quite as flattering as the pictures above.

I decided the easiest way to picture it would be to order myself a grey wig.  I looked on amazon and saw a few that could get here ”tomorrow” so I placed the order thinking they would arrive Monday and I would be able to get a clearer idea before Tuesday.  Unfortunately, since it was after midnight tomorrow=Tuesday.  We’ll see if they can make it in time.  I asked Abigail and Carly what they thought and Abigail was adamant that I couldn’t pull it off and she reminded me that I have a seven year old which apparently makes me too young for grey hair.

• June 14: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 26,158 with 1,221 deaths.   

COVID Day 93 – Saturday, June 13

I sure love a Saturday without early morning commitments.  Katie and Drew started a 1000 piece puzzle several days ago and hadn’t made much progress so I ended up spending a few hours working on that with them this morning. I found a couple rando pictures on my phone from this morning.

Carly was supposed to cook today but is going out on her first official date tonight so Jason winged lunch by heating up some chicken nuggets in the air fryer.  After lunch we moved the action upstairs to try to wrap up the Lego situation.  We finished all the sets that we have instructions to, but now we have to figure out what other sets we have and get those put together.  I discovered we have a advent calendar set from Christmas 2017 so I looked up the instructions and got to working on that.  I pretty much Legoed the entire afternoon and evening.  There’s something about putting my mind to completing something and just going full force on it.  Wish I could say we are done, but Jason discovered that amongst the Legos given to us is a massive Ninjago set.  I’ve already done one of those big sets and I’m kinda dreading another, especially since I have no idea if there’ll be a bunch of missing pieces.  We’ve really only had a few missing pieces from all of our sets.

Carly had a lot of fun on her date – they went to dinner at Panera Bread and then rode electric scooters around Lake Sammamish, capping off the night at her dates house for brownies.  I didn’t want to embarrass her by taking a picture when he picked her up so I told her she owed me a picture from the evening when she got home.

Today I reached 100 days of closing my activity circles on my watch.  I originally just wanted to keep my friend Andrea motivated to keep going on her goal to beat my previous record of 63 days, but then when she stopped I decided to go for 100, but then she mentioned her husband’s record is 110 days I decided to beat it.  I have no idea why.  I didn’t tell either of them I was going for it.  Again, I think it’s just me setting my mind to doing something and doing it.  I am so looking forward to not having to exercise everyday – 11 days to go!

• June 13: Confirmed cases in Washington state – 25,834 with 1,217 deaths.