Christmas Picture!

Our children in their Chrismas pj's. We had a wonderfully quiet holiday. While I enjoyed the extra days off, its made it quite difficult for me to get back in the swing of working a full 5 day work week! I know, first world problems! 

Right now we are deep in the planning for a Florida trip to visit Stephen's sister. While we are there, we are going to renew our wedding vows. Honestly, I'm just psyched to get into the sunshine for awhile! We plan to be there eight glorious days in February. 

This really is a once in a lifetime trip for our family, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I know that traveling and vacationing isn't the best idea right now, and these plans were made with COVID precautions in mind. 

Road Trip (for some of us!)

I am so very blessed to have a best friend who still surprises me. On Friday, she stopped by to visit. Not that big of a surprise unless you know that she lives about an 8 hour drive away. 

She brought me a beautiful necklace that contains some of my mom's ashes as well as an ADORABLE flamingo ornament for our tree! 

My girls were a little disappointed the kids weren't with her. You see, my best friend has four children, three of which are very close in age to my girls. Then Sam piped up with an idea, typical Sam craziness, but my kids latched on. She suggested that they come visit for several weeks then she would bring them home when she next visited (she planned in three weeks.) After we checked with the girls' dad, it was approved by all. 

Back row: Ryan, Alivia, McKayla, Tyler  
front row: Isaac, Natalie, Jasmine 

McKayla had some apprehension and anxiety, but she reluctantly went. She's still quite anxious about things, so we are taking things day by day with her.

Overall everyone else seems happy. My sister is ecstatic that they might be there for her birthday (December 7). 

I'm just happy the girls are able to do this with the pandemic and online school. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to! This should be something that they remember forever. I'm glad that my bff is so brave. I don't think I could handle seven children! 

COVID-19 Update

Well, here we are in month SEVEN of me working from home. Not going to lie, it's starting to get a little bit old. I miss my desk and my work friends. Not that I don't love working with my dogs and husband every day. 

My girls all started school remotely and only this week have returned to the building part time. In the "hybrid school model" all the students are online on Mondays, then on Tuesday and Thursdays, students with the last names beginning A through L (ish) attend classes in the building. The rest attend online those days and go to school on Wednesdays and Fridays while the other group stay home. It is a lot simpler then it sounds. Basically my girls all have the same schedule: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday online. Wednesday and Friday at school. 

They also have lots of preventative measures in place to keep the kiddos safe while they are there: 

• While at school, masks are on all the time. 
• They don't have lockers (in the junior high) and keep everything in their backpacks.
• Chromebooks are utilized whenever possible so that they can prevent the passing of paper between students and teachers. 
  
• drinking fountains are turned off and they only have the water-bottle fillers available for water. 
• sanitizing stations are available everywhere! By everywhere I mean in each classroom, at the school entrance, the cafeteria entrance and other main areas. 
• Band students are required to wear special masks while playing instruments and special covers ON their instruments while playing to prevent the spread of aerosol particles. 

I am sure there are others I am forgetting but that is the main ones I can think of. All I can say is my girls are mostly thrilled to be back in the classroom for the first time since before spring break. 

The numbers here in Idaho are still terrible, going up. 

Idaho Numbers: 

56,600 total cases

950 new cases
(confirmed and probable as of "today 10/22") 

553 deaths 

Numbers from Idaho Novel Coronavirus website

United States Numbers

8,387,047 total cases

222,447 deaths 

updated 10/23/2020 1:49 pm 

Numbers from covid.cdc.gov

World Wide Numbers

41,570,883 confirmed cases 

1,134,940 confirmed deaths

218 countries, areas or territories with cases 

Over a million deaths and the numbers continue to rise :( Hopefully I can stop making these updates soon.