Grateful Friday

 I'm grateful that Kate let me use some Halloween decorations so my class isn't completely sad sack.

I don't like Halloween and my students know it.  Two times the plug in jack-o-lantern that I have on my shelf has fallen on my head because the cord gets bumped and it is stretched to reach the outlet.

My students said the jack-o-lantern is trying to kill me because it knows I don't like Halloween.  But look at this:  I hung up some of Kate's stuff and I may eventually break down and get some of my own.

You can't be Halloween Scrooge and an elementary teacher.  Incompatible.

Mark is never one to overshare.  Occasionally he does want to share something and it takes me off guard.  Last night he said, "Do you want me to write a guest post for your blog?"

What now?

He said, "About getting accepted to USU."

"Oh, OK."

So he did.

Hello everybody! Today I got my first college acceptance letter, from Utah State University. There is an open house in Lehi on Monday, with information about scholarships, and there is a campus tour on the 18th of November that is free for high school seniors. I'm not sure if that's where I am going, I still have other colleges I'd like to apply to. I was not expecting to get my acceptance today, and USU actually sent the email to the wrong person. Mom had to forward me the email because they sent it to her. It's exciting and strange to be applying to college, but I'm so thankful that I have my awesome parents to help me through it all. 

Love Mark E.

editor's note:  Adam set it up that his emails come to me and since teenagers never check email, it's a good system.  The email did go to him, he just didn't see it.

I'm grateful that Mark is looking forward to his future and it also freaks me out because isn't he still 6 years old?!?

Emma sent this last night:

She's quarantined, but looking fabulous.

I'm grateful to be healthy (still tired, but feeling pretty good).  I'm grateful for how kind people are to me. It's a nice feeling to be inundated with "Welcome back!" and  "How ARE you?" and "I'm so glad you're here!"

My costume is a baseball player this year.  I went for comfort above all else.  I took my own mirror selfies this morning in an attempt to be like Emma.

I even got the stirrup socks! And a Mariner's mask!

I have a bit of a deer in the headlights look but that's Halloween at an elementary school.  It isn't for the faint of heart.

Yesterday

 I went to school and I was so very happy to see my students.  Before school they pressed their faces to the window by my desk and squealed when they saw me.  It is so easy to love third graders.  They hugged me and told me they'd missed me and they were glad I was back.  I was glad I was back too, even though I had to dig through a pile on my desk so deep and extensive it threatened to engulf us all.   

I was so very exhausted by the end of the day.  As in I took a nap and was worthless all evening.

Emma sent this:

She's pictured with her cute roommate Heather.  They're proudly pointing to the ballot box.  I felt a little teary when I saw it.  (Maybe because I was so beyond exhausted.)  Also though, it matters to me that my girl can vote.  This year marks 150 years since women could vote in Utah.  I appreciate all who went before and the women who made it possible that my little girl could exuberantly express herself with a ballot.

Well done, sister suffragette!

Patent pending

 We were discussing (like you do) how MOD pizza can get away with their "no name cake" which is basically a ding dong.  (Well, it's better than a ding dong.)

Adam said that anyone can make the cake, the name is what is trademarked.

I decided I would trademark my Covid Hug, which is where you hug someone on their back.  My tagline is--when you are infected but in love.

Adam said it was like this figure skating move.

Yes, I did a google image search.  It is called having nowhere to go and all day to get there.

Mark called it, "The Fault in our SARS."

What it comes down to is, we're not wasting our time over here.  Things are happening.  Decisions are being made.

Quarantining

 We try to stay apart as much as possible.  Mark either should stay away from me because he doesn't have it or stay away from Adam because he does.

His test was negative but we maybe tested him too early and he's been sick.

There's been a lot of this:

pajamas + coat + so. much. hair.

I french braided his hair a few weeks ago and it has only gotten longer.  

I've been making Mark work despite our general feelings of malaise.  He finished his online course yesterday that he was supposed to finish in the summer.  It's an upside of me being home.

I also ordered the bare minimum cap and gown situation possible.  The website started with the $457 package and I just kept scrolling until I got to the $29 cap and gown and tassel.  I didn't even get the souvenir tassel.  I may have with Braeden but that is the difference between your oldest and youngest child.  

I love that guy though, even though I'm cheap when it comes to graduation swag.  I watched enough Sportscenter commercials with him to prove my devotion.

Covid

 So...I tested positive.  I couldn't believe it.  I kept reloading the website and entering my information again, hoping for a different result.

I feel really bad that I didn't know until Wednesday that I was sick.  I was tired and I didn't feel great but that's pretty much been my 40s.  

Covid is extra fun because in addition to getting sick, you get to majorly inconvenience your family and friends and coworkers.  Awesome.

At the same time, I recognize how fortunate I am.  It doesn't affect my employment (besides hassling everyone) and Adam can work from home and Mark can do his school work from home.  Also, I'm not deathly ill, which is a blessing.

I'm grateful for phone calls and texts and emails from dear ones who are cheering me on from afar.

For example, Emma:

Our college kids have to quarantine too and Desi who is quite literally one of the best people I know called.  She said, "So I have nothing to do today (she's a full time student, works, is Relief Society president and has a full social life so apparently she's also a liar!) and I was going to the grocery store anyway and then I was going to take a drive to Pleasant Grove anyway.  I was wondering if you'd like me to go to the store?"

We haven't really done a shopping trip since we returned from Florida so I texted her a list.  She doorbell ditched us and I sent her a Venmo.  She's terrific.  That is all.

I'm grateful not one of the people that I have inconvenienced (and possibly made sick) has made me feel like an inconvenience.

My parents called to check in Friday evening and I had just heard another round of tragic news.  A boy in Mark's class at school (and also in our stake) had died in a car crash when he was hit by someone driving under the influence.  On the heels of losing another man in our neighborhood, I sort of had a come apart.  I told my mom crying jags were maybe a heretofore unknown symptom of Covid.

There are some kind souls in Pleasant Grove who put lights on the mountain at different times.

One light represents Collin, and one represents Landon.

I came across this and it feels like the perfect thing right now.

Grateful Friday

What a week!

Also, as I write this, I'm home in my comfy clothes.  

Monday I had a great day at school in my professional development meetings.  I always go away from those meetings encouraged and energized and so very grateful for my job and the fabulous people I work with.

We painted for one of our activities.

I'm the one in the mask, holding a pumpkin painting....

These are my people and it makes me happy to see them all in the same spot.  

Here's my pumpkin painting up close:

Jamie hung them on the wall in the hallway on the way to the cafeteria.  On Tuesday, when I was walking my students to lunch, they wanted to know which one was mine.  I showed them and they oohed and ahhed appreciatively and one of them started clapping and yelling "Bravo!"

Third graders are such an easy crowd.

Wednesday I went to school feeling kind of rotten which happens about 25% of the time.  Teachers still go to work when they don't feel well.

As a little time passed, it became clear to me, no, I'm really sick.  This isn't just normal sick.  I came home and because it's the school's policy and I felt so very rotten, I had a covid test.  I felt really sad to leave my sweet students when I'd just returned from being gone.  I think I need them more than they need me, but I have missed them.

I'm grateful that I have a job that I love.

I'm grateful that I could (pretty painlessly) get a covid test.  It was a bizarre experience.  Mark drove me and we went west of the freeway and I didn't even know there was anything out there but we followed the signs to a tent in a parking lot.  I spit into a funnel and then gave it back to them and the whole thing had a dreamlike quality to it because who goes to a parking lot west of the freeway to spit into a funnel?

Yesterday we heard the very tragic news that a husband and father in our neighborhood and ward had died suddenly.  He leaves behind a beautiful wife and four beautiful children and a lot of grief.  He was the kind of guy who everyone loved.  He was a force for good in the world.  I have felt shocked and so very sad.  I've prayed for their family and here's what I feel really truly grateful for: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that there's nothing I or anyone could say to this grieving family to make it better.  I know that their faith and their knowledge of eternal families will help.  It won't take away all the pain or make them miss him any less, but it will be a salve.  

And in an upside down world, that is exactly the salve we all need.

Mark and the terrible horrible no good very bad day

 The guy in the visitor's center at Shark Valley said Alabama Jack's was his favorite place "in all of Florida."  We didn't know anything about the guy or his taste or if he's been to anywhere else in Florida, but we took his word for it and went to Alabama Jack's.

The sky got darker and humidity got thicker as we went.  We were sort of between a crocodile preserve and the ocean on a narrow spit of land that had a tree lined road on it.  In a somewhat wider spot, there sat Alabama Jack's.  It was an open air restaurant with a line to get a table mid-afternoon.

humidity + Mark's hair = wowza

It was decorated in the same license plate motif that seems to be all the rage.  There were a few wheezing and gasping fans that did nothing to cut through the heavy oppressive air.

We secured a table and placed our order.  People were smoking and bikers were buying buckets full of beer bottles.  The guy behind the counter clanged a bell whenever that happened.

It was a whole experience.

Our food arrived.

Clockwise from top: the crab cakes Geri ordered (delicious), the blackened mahi rueben Adam ordered (delicious), the coconut shrimp I ordered (delicious), the sweet potato fries, onion rings, baked beans (delicious, delicious, delicious).

Mark ordered nachos.  Why you'd order nachos in the south of Florida where Mexican food isn't much of a thing, is beyond me. They weren't delicious.  They were a huge pile of chips and this gross cheese product and lettuce and a few pieces of chicken.

It was hot and Mark was cranky and the heat coupled with the nasty food made Mark feel sort of sick.

We got back in the car and drove to Biscayne National Park.  The dark sky broke open and it rained. 

In Washington, when it rained, my friends and I would tell our kids that they weren't made of brown sugar and they wouldn't melt.

They may have melted in Florida rainstorms though....

Adam nobly dropped us off at the visitor center and went to park.  We got thoroughly soaked.  Inside the visitor center, Adam chatted with the man working behind the counter in the marvelous way he has to make people feel interesting.  The man seemed really happy to have someone to talk to.

We didn't see much of the park because of the torrent, but it gives us a reason to go back.  (Except we probably won't feel the need to visit Alabama Jack's again.)

Mark was still sick and cranky so he sat outside under a covered overhang and got positively eaten by mosquitoes.

It didn't do much to improve his mood.

He was swelling up all over so we stopped at Walmart for benadryl.  That made him sleepy and made his blood sugar spike.  Then the ankle zipper on his favorite pair of sweatpants (why you wear sweatpants in melt your face off weather is beyond me) and he was done.

I lay next to him at the hotel until he fell asleep.  While he slept, I scrolled through my phone and saw this:

It was exactly the kind of day Mark was having, but he did cheer up after his nap.

The next day we flew home.  It was such a lovely trip and I'll always remember it and feel grateful for the chance we had to spend time together and see sights.

Florida Keys and Dry Tortuga

We spent several days in the Florida Keys 

Mark and Geri were feeding tarpon fish off a dock at one stop off and a manatee showed up.

We had the necessary Key Lime Pie.

We ate in dive restaurants with amazing seafood.  Adam coincidentally sat next to Washington.

We saw what looked to me like the desert island in all the Far Side cartoons. 

We saw pelicans and more chickens and so many iguanas.

I think this is a snowy egret.  I don't know, but my students asked me to take lots of pictures of animals so this is me taking lots of pictures of animals.

Walking around Key West (where we spent most of our time) was at once lovely and sort of seedy.  It was also hot as you can see by my rosy cheeks.

Key West is a picturesque little spot. 

The ocean was warm and pleasant to swim in.  Geri took our picture when I was in the water because she said our children would never believe it.  Fair point. 

Speaking of swimming in the ocean, Mark had a whole lot of beach hair, don't care going on.

A highlight of the trip was our trip to Dry Tortugas.  It was amazing.  I vacillated about whether or not the steep ferry ticket was worth it but it was! Here is where we were:

I already posted some pictures last week, but here are a few more:

On the ferry

Walking along the roof of the fort--that's me in that fashion forward hat....

Adam and Mark snorkeled for about an hour and a half.  I floated in the ocean a little and read my book.  We were all happy.

The world is full of wonders.

Everglades and Little Havana

 We went to two different parts of the Everglades on two different days.  The first day we went to Shark Valley (named because of the Shark River that runs through it.  The land was very flat so it didn't feel like a valley but there you are.)

We rode a tram and I enjoyed it.  I pictured it to be more swampy and buggy but the water was crystal clear and the only bugs were the ones that dive bombed Mark and left the rest of us alone.

It was all flat and wet except these mound of trees here and there.  Some of them are hardwood and they were "hammocks" where the natives used to live.  Since they were slightly raised, they were dry.  Some of them are where the alligators live.

Here is an alligator.  I don't know if you can see it.  It's the only one we saw.

There were lots of great blue heron sightings.

This is an anhinga showing off his wings.

We also went to another part of the Everglades a different day.

This seemed like a place Monet would have liked to paint.

The water was just so amazingly clear.

Here's a really big grasshopper shown next to my foot for scale.  Mark would not get that close to it.

What we didn't get at the Everglades was a poster.  The stores were all closed so we'll have to get one online.

 I loved little Havana!

There were chickens just roaming around, coexisting with the pigeons.  And they weren't just any chickens.  They were beautiful.  (I've never thought a chicken was particularly beautiful before.)

There were huge interestingly shaped trees and beautiful flowers and colorful houses.  

Do you have to be Cuban to live in Little Havana?