2021 is off with a bang...

Well, it hasn't been a smooth start to 2021 for us.  We started by ringing in the new year up north at Nana and Pops' cottage to a puppy with diarrhea.  It started NYE in the evening while we were playing cards and she woke me up several times that night to go out.  This kicked off a week of sleepless nights, accidents in the house, and many portions of boiled plain chicken and white rice for meals.  We finally took her into the vet after a week and after several tests they found nothing.  So, she was put on a prescription to help calm down her intestines and a prescription dog food.

She's on the mend now, has finished her medication, and we are transitioning her to a new food.  On a positive note, she finally likes walks!  She's lost 3 teeth that we've found and we've discovered she loves pig ears.  She's back to sleeping through the night and we've allowed her in our bed now and ditched the nighttime crate.  

In addition to her upset stomach, we've had several issues with our house too since the new year.  We started with the hot water heater dying on us right before we went up north.  Luckily we were home and I was in the basement just getting off the treadmill to find water all over the basement floor.  We had our air ducts cleaned the next day and it was well worth it.  The before and after pictures they shared with us were incredible.  It's safe to say that no other owner of this house has had this done before.

In case that's not enough, the furnace started acting up.  It sounded like it would turn out and try to start blowing heat and the pilot light wouldn't light so it would keep revving up to have room temperature air blowing out.  Luckily this could be resolved by shutting it off and turning it back on to jump start the system, but we knew that wasn't a long term fix.  We had the same company come out that put in our new AC a few years ago and it was a quick and inexpensive fix.  Phew!

I'm knocking on wood that we are good now with all major appliances in our house...

In addition to various companies coming to fix things in our house, we also had to work on finding a new vehicle since the lease on my van was up.  We knew we wanted to get a pick-up truck this time so we were getting Rams priced out.  We hit the jackpot with a great deal with a dealership we've had really bad experiences with in the past.  We were nervous to do business with this dealership again, but so far, so good!  We are now leasing a Ram Laramie for the next 3+ years and it's beautiful!

All of these things have kept us busy, but the kids have been bored and have had to be real creative with how to pass the time.  We haven't had any major snow, which they're bummed about.  So, they've tried out Sean's new RC car.  They've had sleepovers in the living room and built a fort in Sean's room to sleep in.  They've tried "tricks" like knocking over Solo cups with cards and popping balloons with cards and nerf bullets.  Thankfully, they're going back to school this week for half days to get them out of the house and around other kids!  Praying they stay safe and healthy.

I took Sean and Adelaide skiing on a weeknight to get some exercise and to get out of the house.  While it was manmade snow, it was a fun night!  The kids enjoyed skiing under the lights and getting hot chocolate.

We also ventured out yesterday to go bowling for the first time.  We felt safe as they had us several lanes apart from others.  The kids were sore losers by the second game so that was unfortunate, but it was nice to get out of the house!

Things are going to change yet again this upcoming week with the kids going back to school for half days.  My district has me starting back the week after that and then on February 1st with kids.  I'm praying we all stay safe and healthy.  Scott hasn't heard his school's plan yet and we haven't been able to get our vaccine with Wayne County being behind.  I'm at least hoping that our bad luck is over...at least for a while.  We definitely need some positive things to come our way!

Evan's First Communion

 

Evan had his first communion at mass last Sunday, January 10th.  We had started back in church the week before since we hadn't been entirely comfortable being back at mass since the church reopened.  We were partly concerned about us spreading something to elderly people at mass and we were partly concerned about being exposed to the virus ourselves.  But, after going back, we could see they had great safety measures in place and we felt safely distanced from other people.  

We were considering having Scott's entire family and my parents over after mass for pizza, salad, and cake in our garage/outside, but decided that it would be best to push off celebrating with family until the weather gets nicer and we can either barbeque or go out to eat (assuming things have improved with COVID).  Scott's parents and my parents both opted to come to church, which was nice!

There was another boy getting his first communion that even knew from both catechism classes and from school.  They both brought up oil and wine and got to be up at the altar with the priest as he prepared the gifts.  Evan did great going up for communion, although the priest couldn't hear Evan say "Amen" through his mask.  Father acknowledged the boys at the end of mass where everyone got to applaud and he presented them with their certificate.  It was a nice mass!

After mass Evan opened gifts at mass before we left.  We came home and treated him to lunch of his choice as a carry-out.  Of course, he picked Leo's for some chicken fingers and a root beer.  The kids thought it was fun to have a "picnic" in the basement in their fancy clothes.  We went out later in the day to get ice cream from Dairy King on the day they were closing for the season.  He enjoyed a gummy bear island!  

God bless Evan!

NYE Up North

 Scott and I decided to pack up and go to his parents' lake house for a few nights to ring the new year, ski, and get a change of scenery.  The kids were pretty excited and it was Luna's first time up to the lake and on a long car ride.  We checked the weather and opted to go up on Tuesday late morning.  We made a quick stop for gas and lunch at our usual stop off 75 and made it up by 1pm.  The kids jumped out of the van, threw on their snow gear, and went to sled in Nana and Pops' backyard hill. 

The kids came in and warmed up with some hot chocolate and took a rest.  They wanted to go to the big sledding hill so we all piled in Pops' suburban, including the two dogs.  It was a fun hour or so sledding and warming up in the lodge with the fire.  Luckily, there were very few people there.

We came back to the house and ordered carry-out from The Hearth.  The kids played ping-pong in the basement with Nana and Pops and it was time for bed.  

The big snowfall came overnight altering our plans.  We were going to ski at Snow Snake Wednesday morning, but 6"+ of snow fell overnight and was still falling in the morning, so we decided to just enjoy a peaceful, slower morning.  Sean and I went for a walk looking for deer and taking pictures (didn't see any deer), while Evan did more sledding in their backyard.  The kids and I built an igloo in the backyard and Pops showed the boys how to break the ice.

We came in to warm up, take a break, and make homemade pizza for lunch.  Yum!  The boys wanted to go to the indoor swimming pool that opened at 1pm, so we went over to see if there was availability.  They are only letting 10 people in the pool at a time.  We got lucky and there were only two other college-aged girls swimming laps.  Felt like we had the pool to ourselves!

I cooked baked chicken to put on salads for dinner.  We enjoyed some ice cream for dessert and watched Soul on Disney+ with everyone in the basement.  The adults played cards again and it was a relatively early night in bed with skiing in the morning.

Snow Snake opened at 10am so we left by 9 to ensure we got lift tickets and got there okay.  Sean skied for free since he has the "Cold is Cool" passport for 4th and 5th graders.  We had a great morning!  Snow Snake is a bit tricky with bunny hills and black diamonds.  Nothing in between.  The kids surpassed our expectations and managed the black diamonds!  We packed a bag lunch and enjoyed it with some hot chocolate and a warm-up by the fire.  

Meanwhile, back at the lake house, Luna was getting spoiled by Nana and Pops with two walks and time to play with Shelby.  

We got back late afternoon and rested.  Pops picked up chinese food in West Branch for dinner.  The kids had pasta that we cooked for them.  We had ice cream again for dessert and watched Noelle on Disney+ in the basement.  We told the kids they could stay up until midnight, but that they needed to watch another movie in the basement so we could play cards.  Evan ended up falling asleep on the couch, but Sean made it.  We did poppers, had a toast at midnight, and wrapped up our euchre tournament.  Pops and I were the 2020 champions!

Happy New Year!  Here's to hoping we have a year of happiness and above all, health!  That we can regain some sense of normalcy with school, work, and our social life.  

We left Friday morning to head home before the next storm rolled in.  We enjoyed our little getaway and time with family!