A Wild Easter Weekend

It was an eventful but apparently not very photogenic Easter weekend.  I felt like things were nearly non-stop from about mid-week on, and I think I'm still recovering.  Luckily, Jacob's sniffles earlier in the week didn't last long so we were good to go for the weekend.

Our weekend sort of started on Thursday.  Jacob was off that day and we had scheduled his annual brain study for the day since it wasn't a common day off in the area and they still had space.  Usually we go around Christmas but between their schedule and ours (and probably COVID capacities and the like), it got pushed off.  I took the morning off because I knew that it usually takes me until about lunch to finish the surveys that are my responsibility, and then I usually end up working all afternoon from there anyway while I wait for Jacob.  Luckily, he got done a couple hours early so we were out by about 3:30, which was hugely helpful for me.  I had about a million things to get done because we were planning on leaving for Buffalo that night.  I had a dessert to make (Scotcheroos) and croutons to bake, I had to grocery shop before that, figure out dinner, and pack up the kids and me so we could get to my parents' at a reasonable time.  Oh, and I was trying to figure out how to fit in a trip to Kohl's at some point during the weekend because I had a $5 coupon, $10 coupon, and a 30% off coupon (that later became 40% off), that all needed to be used ASAP!  Plus we were coming back Friday night for Jacob's tournament on Saturday, and then getting ready for Easter.  It was a lot and without those two bonus hours I'm not sure it would have all gotten done.  In the end the only thing I didn't get to on my endless list was hard boiling and dyeing eggs, but that's what break is for, right?

I managed to get the grocery shopping done, feed everyone, make Scotcheroos and croutons, finish packing, and miraculously get us out the door before it was too terribly late.  I think we got there around 10:30 or so and basically went right to bed.  My mom wanted to get up bright and early and go to Platters, mostly for their custard sale, but also to grab a couple Easter items.  I got a couple things for the kids--a chocolate basketball for Jacob and a chocolate smart phone for Carter--and some sponge candy for me.  Plus my mom's gift to us was a box of miniatures.  I miss being able to smell when I'm there because I know it smells amazing!  We were back home by around 8am and I was so tempted to go to the Broadway Market to get a painted Polish egg or two and look for a few other things, but the thought of battling traffic and dealing with crowds won out and I just relaxed for a bit.  My mom wanted to go to Kohl's, too, so we went there before lunch.  She found a few things but I found nothing, which was a double bummer because I wasn't sure my weekend would leave much time to try again at home.  We stopped quickly at Walmart to pick up lunch meat for lunch and some gluten-free things for Jacob, and then ate quickly before the kids and I headed out to the outlets...of course.  Jacob just got new sneakers so luckily he didn't really have to look for shoes, but Carter wanted to look since his are inexplicably getting worn out already.  Jacob did manage to find some clothes at the Nike Store and one thing at the Puma store, and Carter found some sneakers at the Puma store, as well.  We made it back to my parents' house with just enough time to boil up Jacob's pasta for prunes and noodles and head out.

After missing prunes and noodles entirely in 2020 and doing it masked and a little nervous last year, this year was a nice return to normalcy, even if COVID is spreading pretty readily again and there are probably plenty of risks to any gathering.  But if I can have that kind of close contact with Craig and not get it, I'm going to try to live life relatively normally if I can--especially the important stuff involing family and holidays.  We had a lovely time with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and their babies.  Interestingly, Carter got into playing my uncle's full size arcade game and made a buddy in my cousin's very shy daughter Emmy, who apparently talks to almost no one.  Go figure.  It was fun catching up, watching the little kids, and eating too much as usual.  After that, we were off to church.  The kids and I were definitely in the minority masked, but I was thankful we were when I started hearing Carter sniffle.  Ugh, not again.  Luckily, it seemed to be nothing again, so maybe it's allergies or maybe the dose of zinc I gave him was enough to knock it out overnight.  Ironically, the church's head pastor tested positive for COVID that morning!  Definitely a bummer heading into one of the biggest church times of the year, and apparently my mom did throw her mask back on after hearing that!  I got to see an old high school friend of mine there.  Her family normally goes to my mom's childhood church but has apparently been checking out my parents' church here and there ever since they took piano lessons with my aunt there.  Ironically, my aunt now goes to our old church again!  Such a funny little world the local Lutheran churches are!  After church, the boys and I stopped at the Trader Joe's across the street to grab a few things, and then headed home.  The house was empty as Craig left that morning for Long Island, his last road trip of the season (yes!). 

We were up bright and early on Saturday for a 9am basketball game.  It was against a team that's under the domain of Jacob's favorite coach, but not actually coached by him.  We knew it would be a rough game, and it was--so rough that Jacob never even got to play.  That was super disappointing.  It made for an extra long drive out to a team lunch 20 minutes away (plus a detour to get him Chick-fil-A since the restaurant didn't have anything for him).  He was not happy.  Carter and I stayed for lunch (my garbage plate wrap was so good!), and then we all headed home for a bit before the next game so I could work through some of my Easter to-do list.  I had to bake cupcakes for Easter dessert, for starters.  I had just enough time for that before leaving for game #2.  Once again Jacob didn't play a lot, but he did get nearly a point a minute once he made it in.  He scored five points in about six minutes, which definitely aided in their win.  I think it also made a case that he should be able to play more, but I guess we'll see.  Because of their morning loss they didn't end up in the championship, but for one weekend that was fine with me because I needed those two hours desperately!

Back home we went, and I quickly fed the kids (I was still stuffed and settled for a smoothie later that night) and headed out to Kohl's.  I did really well this time, getting a long puffer coat, two pairs of pajamas for Carter, a blouse, a "dressy" flannel shirt, a long-sleeve tee, and a pair of leggings for $41.  Not bad!  The coat in particular was a score--just $14 for a cute, cozy, knee-length coat that fits me like a glove!  Back home, my next task was to prep for Easter breakfast.  

Now, I guess a side note is needed here.  Originally we were hoping to just spend the weekend in Buffalo and have Craig meet us there after his roadtrip.  But the Saturday tournament put the kibbosh on that once it was confirmed a few weeks ago.  Still, we figured maybe we could go back to Buffalo Saturday night, go to church with my parents on Sunday, enjoy their church breakfast (which Carter still talks about), and meet up with Craig in time to head to his family.  Well...he couldn't get his original flight changed, and eventually a group of them decided to drive back from Long Island after Saturday night's game, which got him home around 4:30am.  Ick.  But the good news was that we could all take one vehicle and do all of Easter together.  So, taking a cue from our pandemic Easter, I decided to try to make Easter morning as special as possible by having a fun breakfast.  The only issue was that I still wasn't sure what timing would work better for us.  If we went to 9:30 church, I'd have to get up early to make breakfast, drag Craig out of bed on a few hours sleep, and hope we made it to church on time (and if we were late, listen to Jacob complain about not being in the sanctuary again--he hates being in the gym).  If we went to 11:15 church, we could have a lazy morning but then would have to rush from church to Buffalo, and likely end up late to Craig's family because we had to make a couple stops on the way.  We accidentally stole my parents' iPad charger and cord, so we had to stop there, and then I found out at the last minute that Heather, Peter, and Mason were coming to Buffalo for the holiday, so we wanted to meet up with them briefly to finally give them the baby clothes--third time's the charm after the canceled Binghamton tournament and the jury duty-destroyed Syracuse trip!  Oh, and as I was thinking about dragging those bags out, I realized I had promised to give Craig's cousin Jill our 18-month clothes (which Mason ended up not needing), since her little seven-month-old is an overachiever!  I was afraid if I didn't do it this trip he might outgrow them before we got back there!  So...all things considered we decided to aim for 9:30 church and see how it went.

So, the night before I had to prep breakfast, which was a cinnamon French toast bake.  I had to cut a loaf of bread into bite-sized pieces (second time in a couple days doing that, since I did it for the croutons, too!), toast them a bit, lay them on a bed of cinnamon and sugar, pour over an egg mixture, and then let it sit in the fridge overnight.  I also frosted cupcakes that night and made more than a dozen baked donuts using the same recipe I used for the donuts I decorated Carter's birthday cake with.  I was dragging by the time I put Carter to bed, and then I had to assemble Easter baskets and hide eggs.  Ugh.  I really struggled but luckily hiding eggs is pretty easy with all the toys we have!  Still, I don't think I went to bed until about 1am, and then woke up briefly when Craig got home at 4:30 and probably mostly dozed until my alarm went off around 6:30.

I had to make the streusel topping for the bake and throw it in the oven so it had an hour to cook while we got ready.  I also baked up some bacon.  Miraculously we ate our breakfast relatively on time and it was pretty darn delicious if I do say so myself!

While we didn't make it out the door when I wanted to, we still made it to church just as the music was starting and still got seats in the sanctuary (good thing people never sit in front!).  But I'll be honest--I was very happy to be masked because it was full, and at current rates, statistically there had to be a few people in that room with COVID!  It was a very nice service and our first in person on Easter since 2019!  We came home to change and pack up, and at the last minute Carter asked when they were going to be able to find their eggs...oops!  Forgot about that!  Luckily the boys did pretty well--I think they found their baskets and all their eggs within about 15 minutes.  Because of the rush I forgot to take pictures with their baskets.  Carter got a cute stuffed Easter gnome (he loves gnomes and I found the cutest one with bunny ears at Dollar Tree weeks ago), plus a new phone case and pop socket since he was still using Jacob's old one.  Jacob mostly just got candy, plus a $5 bill (it was all I had) and a note to enjoy his new clothes from the outlet.  I will say that I was impressed that even Jacob had a hard time with some of my hidden eggs!  I actually lost track of how many eggs they had, and even found one spot neither of them found on Monday after we got home!  

Another side note is that we were originally going to stay on Monday for Dyngus Day festivities, but between trying to fit in training for Jacob and crappy weather (it snowed in Buffalo), we just decided to come home Sunday night.  Probably a good thing since one more round of packing might have done me in!

The Buffalo trip ended up being a little more stressful than we anticipated.  When we were about 20 minutes from my parents' house, the van started acting funny.  At first we thought we had a flat tire, but then we realized that every time Craig accelerated, the van shook.  We stopped quickly to confirm it wasn't a tire, but couldn't see anything.  We asked AAA if there was anything they could do, but there really wasn't unless we needed a tow, so we just carefully continued on to my parents'.  We stayed there for a little bit thinking through things, and eventually borrowed their car for the next leg.  We stopped in Tonawanda to drop off the clothes for Mason and had a nice five minute chat while he fearlessly ran along the sidewalk, and then headed to Hamburg and had another five minute chat with Jill and her husband when we dropped off their bags of clothes.  I have five empty bins now!  Woohoo!  The 3T clothes are started but I will definitely have to sort through a bunch more bins in the next year because I know there will be 3T shorts in the 5T bins!  

We had a wonderful time with Craig's family.  It was great to catch up with everyone and also to see Carter once again bond with the daughter of a family friend.  She's about a year older than him and I guess she remembered him from before, hoping he'd be there.  They had a lovely time playing Minecraft!  The food was amazing as usual--the desserts in particular were a struggle: banana cream pie, ice cream pie, layered jello, cheesecake, placek (a Polish sweet bread), and then my cupcakes.  How can you pick?  One of everything, basically!  After getting some encouragement from our nephew who has done some mechanic work that it was probably a tire balance thing (Craig had just had his rotated), we headed back to my parents and braved the drive home.  We figured out that if we just increased speed really gradually, the van didn't shake as much, so we really only had it happen once or twice on the way home.  It was definitely a relief to get home safely, and man, was I tired after all that!

We were hoping to get the van in early Monday but they were busy, so we had to wait until Tuesday.  With nowhere to go, Monday ended up being pretty lazy.  Between the busyness of the weekend, the last couple weeks of COVID life, and work craziness, I had a few hours on Monday where I think I just sort of shut down.  I think I was completely decompressing from everything, unable to motivate myself to get up and get dressed, or really do much besides stare at my phone.  I recovered my functionality for the second half of the day--even got to the bank to cash some checks that had been waiting for months, for various reasons--but thank goodness for a few days off this week while the kids are off...maybe.  The piles of work are waiting for me, too, so the wisdom of that is debatable.  But it's not much better mentally to sit at my computer all week while the kids run amok, so I think it's a fair trade.  Speaking of which, the University reinstated its mask mandate on Friday, and right after that my office reverted to our remote flex model, which means I can once again work from home all week, at least for the next couple weeks.  Considering I'd rather not wear a surgical mask all day, that's probably a good thing, but it's also a little disappointing because I was eager to try to get back in the groove after nervously anticipating getting back to my new normal, and now I have to wait all over again.  It only lasted about two weeks, which makes me wonder if it's foolish to think it will ever work as long as COVID is around.  Cases continue to rise--there's an even more contagious variant that's hammering Syracuse right now--and while it's not a bad strain, it's starting to drive hospitalizations up again.  I wasn't going to get another booster, but now I'm not so sure.  For my own sanity, I'm starting to venture out without masks a little--mostly at stores, because again, if intimate contact didn't do it, passing someone in a store shouldn't either--but crowds will still involve masking, especially now.  

As I said, we didn't do much Monday, though Carter did have his first Cadbury egg...

He was very excited...and he liked it!

...and we finally got around to dyeing our eggs.

Just in time to make egg salad for Carter's lunch on Tuesday, and I got asparagus today so I'm excited to make my favorite egg meal, creamed eggs and asparagus.  So good!  

As for the van, the mechanic was about 99% sure it was the transmission, so we had to wait yet another day to get it into a transmission place.  I was having painful flashbacks as I drove there to pick up Craig from dropping it off, back to when my Neon's transmission blew around 2006.  That was not fun and not cheap.  Luckily, they figured out the van's problem, and it wasn't a blown transmission.  It was a $700 fix, so basically around a quarter of the price it could have been.  Whew.  And just as exciting was that it was done today, rather than a week and a half from now.  We do not do well as a one-car family.

Hopefully we can think of something fun to do despite less than ideal weather all week.  We avoided the foot-plus of snow other parts of the state received the past couple days but it has still been way below average cold and yesterday was rainy and windy on top of it.  Today is sunny and while it's fine to walk to the mailbox or into a store, I'm not sure it's quite at my threshold for a playground or even a walk.  The only really good weather is Sunday, and I'll be spending a good chunk of that at my cousin Lori's bridal shower.  I almost had to miss that because we were supposed to be in Maryland that weekend for basketball, but that tournament got canceled.  And I'll be missing the only other fun trip Memorial Day weekend because of the wedding!  Worth it, but it's a bummer there had to be overlap.

So, on we go.  Two more Knighthawks home games left, three straight weeks of tournaments start next weekend, and the stretch run of the school year is almost here.  May is coming rapidly, and I really hope it brings spring with it!  

Escaping COVID-Land, Part 2

Carter had last Friday off school because it was state test scoring day, and originally I had big plans for us.  But as the week progressed I was nearly convinced we couldn't possibly end up COVID-free so I tried to keep his expectations low.  But when I was still feeling good Thursday and decided a Friday off sounded good (especially since I didn't use my vacation day the previous week due to jury duty), I scheduled a day off and hoped for the best.  I decided to get a lab test done Friday just to put my mind at ease, and scheduled it that morning with the results within about two hours.  My plan was to get lunch with Carter and then go on our adventure, and I figured by that point I'd know for sure and we could come right back home after lunch if needed.  We just had a lazy morning after Jacob's drop-off and my test, and we left right before 11 for an early lunch.  We had a couple other places that were first on Carter's list, but both were pizza and since we were having homemade pizza for dinner, we ended up at Burger King instead.  It was fine since it was my first time eating there in a while and we actually had a really fun lunch together.  He's such a sweet kid, offering to share his beloved chicken fries with me!  While we were eating, my test result came in, and sure enough, negative!  Onward to our fun!

Our first stop was actually a library, though none of the ones we usually go to.  We went to one on the edge of a sketchy part of the city because it was one of the few close to us that had a VIP pass, which is a program where the libraries offer discounts for local attractions that you can check out like a book.  I think I used one for the Memorial Art Gallery when I went my first time, and the one for the science museum, which was our destination for the day, was a buy-one-get-one discount--an $18 savings, so totally worth the extra stop.  I probably wouldn't go into that area at night, but it was the middle of the day and a cute little library branch (though I'm guessing that plexiglass around the desk was there pre-pandemic, but...oh, well).  We grabbed it in about five minutes and headed off to the museum.  Our goal was to get there around noon, which would give us five full hours if we needed them.  

I hadn't been to the museum in a long time.  We took Jacob over Christmas break when Carter wasn't even a year old.  Carter had been there on a field trip a couple years back, but it was nice to get back and be able to do things himself, rather than having to stick with the group.  It was also nice that it wasn't an area-wide break day because it wasn't busy at all.  We passed by a couple larger field trip groups but could easily escape them.  For the most part, we had the whole place to ourselves!  

There was a special dinosaur exhibit and this guy was at the entrance.  And you could control him!  It was neat to make him move, from his tail to his mouth!

We started in a room with a brick crane, electrical circuits, and a simulation of concrete wall creation.

Controlling the crane

The museum has a major focus on the environment and local connections.  It's called the "Rochester Museum and Science Center", so while most people just refer to it as the science museum, truly it is a local history AND science museum combination.  I feel like it is getting a little outdated in spots--still lots of taxidermied animals and dioramas in between more modern hands-on stuff.  There was actually one whole section that was blocked off for a new exhibit, and it was a bit of a bummer since that's probably the room Jacob enjoyed most last time.  It had a crawling track suspended from the ceiling, a water and sand table, a roller coaster model, and a model of the Erie Canal locks.  I think Carter would have loved all of it.  Hopefully we get back there sometime and get to see what they replace it with.  We checked out a virtual reality-style walk through a local park during the glacier era, and we very much enjoyed a 15-minute movie about local resources, including our waterways, wind farms, and salt mines.  We learned that Rochester once had tropical seas, as evidenced by the fossils here and the fact that the evaporation of those seas created salt mines south of Rochester, one of which we pass by just past Geneseo.  Who knew?  

This room is always cool with the mastodon and woolly mammoth artifacts.  Carter did a whole report at school on mastodons, so I think he enjoyed it.

This was in the display depicting the tropical seas here, and Carter is still talking about these two creatures--the one creepy lobster/scorpion one and the fully armored fish, whose skeleton is shown in the photo below.  Even the eye sockets seem to be bony!

Carter did a short but cute puppet show for me with the woodland puppets, and we checked out lots of animals and other facts about our local environment.  Upstairs, we saw an entire exhibit on race and racism.  It included this very controversial panel that was removed from our local carousel near the lake.  Some people claimed it was history and others claimed it was inappropriate because of the racist depiction of the child.  Both are true, so now it is in a museum to share it within context.  A new panel took its place a few years ago and it blends very well with the original art.   

There was a whole section about the Underground Railroad since there's such a history of it here.  It was really interesting to read some of the local connections.  Carter liked the rowboat in that section--I don't think I saw a description but it was probably there to tell the story of the slaves who crossed Lake Ontario by boat to escape to Canada. 

We went through all of the Native American history dioramas as well.  Jacob really liked those last time but they're gradually losing artifacts as some were apparently obtained through less-than-ideal means and many have been returned by law to their tribes.  

There was a great section on the second floor that was full of hands-on stuff.  One of my favorite things in the entire museum was this cylinder of magnetic fluid that you could manipulate through strong magnets.  

We had fun trying to steal it from one another and move it back and forth.  It was fascinating to watch.  

Carter's favorite activity of the day was this flight simulator.  You could pilot an old school plane (like the Wright Brothers, I guess) from the Rochester airport.  It was a little hard to control but Carter had fun trying to master it.  We had to do it twice--once our first time through, and once on our way out.  He's lucky hardly anyone was there because he got to play with it for a long time!

There were a bunch of sound activities in the same area, and it was cool how a certain set of vibrations made this channel of foam balls stand up in rows!

This was the section with the two stations above.  It's a fun little space. 

A nearby room had a bunch of rock and mineral samples, which of course Carter has always enjoyed, and we thought this one was pretty cool.

There was an optics section around the corner, where you could play with lots of light-based activities.  Carter liked the laser harp!

Upstairs on the top floor was the dinosaur exhibit.  I think the last time we were here, this was a space/sci-fi exhibit.  I actually wish our museum had more space-based stuff regularly--Buffalo's science museum has a really cool space section and I felt like all the local focus here made it a little less diverse of a science education than I would expect for something with "science" in its title.  But the dino exhibit was neat--lots more animatronic dinosaurs and some other fun activities.

The animatronics were just cool enough you could almost imagine them being real.  The tails were probably most impressive, but some of them could even breathe, where you could watch the area around their ribs move in and out!

Carter picked up this dino egg moving game pretty quickly.  The robotics took a bit to get the hang of, but he did a great job moving the eggs from one side to another.

 
Another section of the third floor includes an impressive diorama of old Rochester.  I remember seeing this last time, and as I recall they were working on refurbishing it.  Now they also have virtual reality tablets that you can rotate across the panorama and toggle between the diorama and that same view in present day Rochester.  It was neat to see the comparison of where the arena is now compared to the buildings in the diorama, or how the canal turned into Broad Street.  

This church is one of the only buildings still standing, and I made sure to point it out to Carter on Saturday when we passed by.

That section of the museum also has an area to construct a trebuchet to fling a ball into a castle using K-nex, tape, and other household items, but we just used creations that were left behind.  There were a couple things where you power something by riding a bike, and full-size dioramas of an apothecary and a general store.  The one thing I wish we could have done was the Tesla coil demonstration, but that wasn't a Friday thing.  We saw it with Jacob and it was incredible.  You can see it here. 

After another round on the flight simulator, I convinced Carter to leave so we had enough time to drop the discount pass back at the library before it closed and get ourselves some Happy Hour Taco Bell Freezes since it turned into a nice day.  It wasn't warm, but when the sun was out it was tolerable.  We took a few minutes to check out the gardens.  They had a horse that I assume is still hanging in there from the "Horses on Parade" event that Rochester had back in 2000 or so.  

They had a set of these discs where you could each stand at a disc, about 25 yards apart, and communicate with the other person just by whispering.  Acoustics are really amazing.

There was a 50+ year old herb garden and this sculpture called "Cub Scouts".    

There were open daffodils around the park, the first I'd seen this spring, as well as beds of these tiny purple flowers that I've seen around, often a blanket at the base of trees.  The oddball was this one single tiny tulip.  Most of the other tulips barely appeared to have buds, and this one was trying to open!  A tiny flash of hope, right?

We did our library drop-off, got our Freezes, and headed home.  Jacob wanted to go to the Y, and I needed to go to Wegmans anyway, so I dropped him off and did a Wegmans run at the first Wegmans I shopped at when I moved here.  As I parked, I could just make out the bottom half of a rainbow trying to come through the drizzly weather that had moved in as we made our way back from the museum.  After a week like we'd had, I needed it to be symbolic.

Saturday marked Craig's release from quarantine, and he was off to work around 8am.  We had a relatively quiet morning, but just as Craig was coming home to nap, we took off for Jacob's tournament on the other side of Rochester.  He played one game and it didn't go very well.  He only played a little and went 0-3.  Plus he sprained his ankle when his shoe caught the floor.  I'll spare you the screen grab I got from the video a parent took.  It was gross, maybe even worse than the one we got last year when the entire side of his foot was clearly touching the ground.  Saturday night was rather rough as a result, trying to talk him down in the midst of lost confidence AND deal with the ankle issue.  I convinced him to go to the Knighthawks game because Craig said he could probably get him in to see the trainer postgame.  I figured that was the quickest way to get him looked at and put his mind at ease, one way or another.  If we waited until the morning, it might make him miss his games anyway.  It was good to get to a game, even if the circumstances weren't ideal and we were rather late arriving.  I saw a few people I hadn't seen at the last game, including Craig's old roommate and a family of fans whose daughter was born a couple weeks after Carter.  The crazy thing is she's now almost as tall as me--just over 5'!  She is a full nine inches taller than Carter.  Her parents are tall but she is just shockingly big!  The trainer determined that Jacob should ice and take ibuprofen, but he could play the next day if he could stand the pain, so the following morning Craig and Jacob got up early and tested things out at the Y.  They ran to get an ankle brace as well, and we left the house for the tournament at 10am.

Jacob scored seven points in the first game, which was amazing to see considering how he felt the night before.  Every time he shifted direction on the floor it made me cringe a little knowing how it probably felt to his ankle.  He added three more points in the second game.  He ended up not playing much in the championship game as it was very close (despite winning pretty convincingly against that same team the game before).  But they won, so that was fun!

 

Craig took a picture of Jacob and me because he called me the "MVP" of the week after shuttling Jacob around and otherwise keeping the house functional while he was quarantined. 

And yes, he's giant now.

Of course, we got home that night after a stop at the Dick's House of Sport at the mall and dinner out, and Jacob started sneezing and sniffling.  He stayed home from school on Monday.  So, once again someone was sick in this endless run of sickness, and another round of testing was in order.  Thankfully, it appeared to be relatively short-lived.  He went back to school on Tuesday and seems mostly normal now.  Thank goodness, because I was having visions of another lost Good Friday and Easter, and these days it would be such a loss.  The pandemic made us appreciate these events so much, and losing yet another (let alone ANY) opportunity to see family or do something fun is extra hard now.  

Even still, despite dodging a bullet this time, I am just SO incredibly over this run of sickness.  This is almost worse than our run in 2014-15.  It's just been constant and exhausting.  I'm starting to feel the same amount of disbelief and frustration I had by the end of that run, but it's all sort of buried under this hardened shell of pandemic fatigue.  It's like, I'd normally be losing my mind even more, but after the last two years, I only really have the energy to shrug my shoulders and throw a pity party of one for a little bit.  I really hope the weather permanently improves soon so most of these bugs go away.  I might have to Lysol and air out the house this week while the weather is a little warmer.  I just don't know what else to do.  

So, as of now we're prepping for Easter weekend and I have about a million things to do in the next two days.  Never mind that we're going to Buffalo maybe tonight and I haven't packed or shopped or done really anything to prepare because I was nervous to do anything early in the week, and the rest of the week has been busy and snuck up on me!  Then we have a tournament scattered throughout Saturday, as well.  It's going to be interesting...but I'm just happy it appears to be happening!

Escaping COVID-Land, Part 1

It has been a WEEK.  Maybe one of the longest weeks ever.  And I suppose in many ways it's still not over because even though Craig's quarantine is technically done, he's still supposed to mask for a few more days so I can't say we'll be getting back to normal around the house just yet.  But at least he's not trapped in the basement even if he is still trapped in a mask.  

Craig weathered COVID okay.  It was a pretty bad cold for him--lots of congestion, sneezing, coughing, throat clearing, and general tiredness.  He worked a bit, watched a lot of TV, and slept.  He's getting better by the day, but is definitely still doing a lot of throat clearing as he waits for the congestion to clear.  He spent his five days in the basement, mostly masked or with the door closed.  We'd mask if we had to go down there for laundry or bottled beverages, but tried to avoid the bathroom, which was less than ideal.  In the meantime I was managing the needs of two kids while trying to keep up with my own work in between home tests.  I feel like all I did was drive Jacob around to the Y or to practice, and go grocery shopping (I lost track...probably five times across three stores?).  I worked an in-person event for work on Wednesday and took off Friday (more in a bit), but the rest of the week was working from home, sometimes masked myself--either to protect from Craig when he dropped off dishes or went to shower, or to protect the kids in case I ended up positive.  Jacob and I both had a couple negative home tests, but I finally bit the bullet on Friday and did a lab test through Walgreens because I was afraid I was just asymptomatic and it wasn't registering on the home tests.  I didn't really have symptoms but periodic headaches, scratchy throat moments, and post-nasal drip can mess with you.  It came back negative, so at this point I'd have to think I'm in the clear.  How, I have no idea.  We had rather close contact 12 hours before his symptoms started, so either my immune system is top notch right now, or I'm just super lucky.  

Of course, avoiding it despite that contact makes me think about my masking strategies.  If I didn't get it after two nights being breathed on in bed plus actual kissing, what are the odds I'd get it somewhere else a few feet from people?  Probably safe-ish at Wegmans, but I still hesitate to go maskless at the basketball tournaments or Knighthawks games (despite being one of the only ones masked) because sitting by strangers for an hour still seems iffy.  But right now it's just hard mentally to shift back to no protections at all, particularly on the heels of seeing what quarantine is like first-hand.  It's so frustrating.  I just hate looking like the only one who's overprotecting, but maybe all those people already had COVID?  I don't know.  I have a lot of thinking to do.

I tested Wednesday morning because I had a work event at the Eastman School of Music and didn't want to infect anyone, but despite the negative I used a better mask (with a UR mask over it) and basically felt like my ears were being cut off my head from the mask elastic.  Ugh.  But at the end of the event I did finally get to go in and see this beauty up close for the first time in more than two years.

It was a really nice day that day, although it clouded up over the course of my drive home.  At least I had one of my favorite college-era CDs and a college-reminiscent rice krispie brick to enjoy the ride, all on the kind of weather day I lived for in college, when the campus came to life and that first step out the door didn't make me cringe with a blast of cold.  In-person events are fun, but they are still exhausting post-pandemic.  It had been a long day already, but that evening Jacob wanted to go to the Y to shoot...again.  Despite the clouds, the temperature was still decent so I told Carter we could go check out the two playgrounds around the corner from the Y that we noticed on our way to Wegmans a few days earlier.  They were at an elementary school just down the road from my first-ever apartment.  As usual, we had fun checking out all of the different equipment and getting in some climbing.  

This one had a couple funky, sloping climbing ropes (center and right).

I love these roller slides because they're so fast, but Carter just sees a challenge!

Just off to the side from the main apparatus was a full climbing structure, much like at the Hilton playground that's one of our favorites.  It was a big one and it was fun to climb our way to the top!

Silly boy!

Such a handsome kid...holding himself up just with his arms!

We took a walk over to the other playground on the far side of the school.  It was probably the Pre-K/Kindergarten playground, but it was still pretty cool.

Spinny things!

Those rainbow sunshades were really pretty, and the moon rock seems like a little too good of a hiding place!

Cute little table with two seats--we were taking each other's orders!

We had a nice time and appreciated another almost-spring day before the weather started to go back downhill again.  We still had some fun up our sleeves for later in the week if COVID didn't ruin it, though!  In many ways it felt like we'd never get to that point, and it was hard to be the default parent for that long.  Single parents are truly amazing people.  Sometimes it's just easier because you know what the expectations are and don't have to worry about who's doing more or less, but it was pretty exhausting and my gas tank definitely felt the pain, too.  It's been a busy weekend since then and I can attest to having a hard time keeping my eyes open at 8pm on Sunday night, so I can tell it's been quite a week.  But stay tuned for a recap of our fun long weekend adventures!

Yup, it's officially The Plague. Times Two.

After my post on Sunday, I suppose this was bound to happen--COVID has hit our household.  Craig tested positive this morning.  Ironically, it didn't come from Carter, who's still coughing up a storm.  Craig came home from his road trip Saturday night, and by midday Sunday he was showing very similar symptoms to Carter--congestion and a cough.  Because the symptoms were so similar, I guess we didn't give it a second thought.  We've had so many viruses go through here in the past six weeks or so and it appeared to just be the next one in line, once again passed on from a kid.  

But he is so used to testing for work that he didn't hesitate to do one first thing this morning, and here we are.  I was merely three hours into our new hybrid schedule in the office, but I felt weird staying knowing that I had been exposed (close contact in bed for the last two nights, at the very least), so I came home at lunch.  My test was negative, but we'll see how long that lasts.  

Carter stayed home again today because his cough is still really nasty.  It didn't sound lung-related ,but we took him to the doctor tonight nonetheless, just to be safe.  It turns out he has influenza A!  Who knew?  I never would have thought that was the flu, so I guess his vaccine did half its job.  The doctor just said that as long as he's been fever-free for over 24 hours, he's probably okay to go back to school, but the nurse did say if it was still a hacking cough, which it is, we might want to wait even just so he's comfortable.  Now that he's been exposed I'm not sure how I feel about sending him back anyway--in part because if he did start showing symptoms I'm not sure we could tell the difference between what he already has and COVID--but I HATE having him miss more school and spending all day with screens while I work.  If we decide he stays home a fifth day, we may need to institute mandatory reading and toy time during the day and check in with his teacher to keep him up on things, just so he's not a screen zombie when he finally makes it back.

Jacob, of course, instantly started insisting via text that he didn't want to go to practice and school, but considering he's vaccinated, had COVID, and still masks, it's hard to keep him home.  Given all that he's had to miss recently from illness and injury and the appendix scare, I can't justify it just yet.  I should be the first to test positive since I have had the closest contact, so if I do, then maybe we'll talk.  But I'd rather he get in his practices while he still can.  If I test positive that might mean he has to miss his next tournament since Craig will, in theory, be able to work Saturday's Knighthawks game and can't take him, but if I'm sick at best I'd have to drop him off masked or he'd just have to skip it to be safe.  Of course, he fell asleep on the couch at 9pm tonight, which never happens, so I'm sure we're in for some sort of delight between the two illnesses he could catch in the house, or all the rest he could still get anywhere else.

There's never a good time for this, but obviously it's already proving to be the chaos we've been actively trying to avoid for two years.  Between coming home midday, testing everyone, figuring out how to get Jacob to and from practice and Carter to his appointment at the same time, plus getting an extra work project I didn't expect because my boss had her own family emergency, it's been a day.  I had to do Wegmans tonight, too, partly because we needed stuff and partly because I don't know how long I'll be able to go there this week, and by the time I finished shuttling the boys, made dinner, did dishes, ran to Wegmans, put it away, Facetimed my parents to let them know, and got Carter in bed, I was spent.

It's ironic, of course, since in yesterday's post I talked about just wanting to get it over with.  I actively wondered to myself in the car yesterday (after the end of the masked worship area announcement) if I should be changing my prayer to getting through COVID with no severe or long-term ramifications, rather than hoping to avoid it altogether.  The stress of it all has been feeling unhealthy on its own, so as long as we can get through without problems, I think life would be significantly easier on the other side.  But that's a giant IF.  I can only hope at this point that the vaccines do their job and keep symptoms mild.  Craig has enough lung issues after a childhood of asthma (although it's generally fine these days), and I just read about heart issues after infection and immunization (way higher after infection, of course), so it's all still pretty unnerving.  But I am SO tired of being the only one masked in certain situations and maybe this is our out.  

So far I feel fine.  I've had moments of a sore or froggy throat today, my nose has had runny moments here and there, and my one headache lasted a little longer than usual, but nothing definitive.  Craig's symptoms showed up on day 3 after exposure so that could be as soon as tomorrow for us, but especially me since we did quite a bit of close cuddling on Saturday night.  I swear every time we've had adult time during the pandemic, one of us has come up sick or almost sick a day later.  And it seems to confirm yet again that whenever we take a baby step and take off our masks, we get exposed.  It was me a month ago, then Craig actually got COVID this weekend, and in turn I felt guilty for talking to my cube mate without one this morning when I heard about Craig's diagnosis.  And trust me, it's happened plenty prior.  Every stinking time.

It's weird to know I could wake up feeling like crap tomorrow.  But I feel like so much of this is a lose-lose.  If I get COVID, that will stink for a ton of reasons.  If I don't, I'm no better off mentally.  We will just have to go back to the wait-and-see game and keep trying to process my complex about being the only masked person most places I go.  Either way, this is definitely not the Monday I bargained for!

We made it so long without COVID tracking us back down, and now those efforts may be for nothing.  That's disappointing, and 

Stuck in the Muck

Lately I've felt like we're just slogging through the muck of life.  It's like one of those dreams where your feet feel like lead but you know you've got a long way to walk and can't fathom how you'll get there or why this is so hard.  Between illness and weather and other general frustrations right now, I just feel stuck.  

After finally getting through Jacob's appendicitis scare the previous week, Carter ended up sick again this week.  It was the strangest thing--I picked him up from the afterschool program on Wednesday and he just looked...off.  He looked tired or something, but he said he felt fine.  I couldn't shake that something was up, and as he was finishing dinner and I was washing dishes, all of a sudden he came over to me holding napkins over his mouth.  He had randomly thrown up at the table, without warning.  Luckily, it was mostly chewed up solid food so the mess was minimal, but it was a little distressing nonetheless.  I sent him up to the bathroom to sit until I finished cleaning up the kitchen.  He felt fine afterward and never did get sick again, so I almost wonder if he somehow gagged himself.  He's a little weird with textures and it seems like something about that meat was giving him an issue, because when we had it as leftovers a few days later he complained that it was making him sick again.  He seemed fine after that other than a little cough Craig noticed right before dinner, but when I checked him he had a 100-degree fever.  He chose to sleep in the bathroom that night, without incident, and woke up with a 99 fever and a worsened cough.  When we got home from dropping off Jacob (Craig left that morning for his roadtrip), we did a COVID test, which was negative.  The fever hung in there until Friday night, and the cough is still pretty bad, but a second COVID test was also negative.  We'd really like to get him back to school soon, but the cough would be really disruptive right now and we obviously don't want him to be contagious.  And God forbid any of the rest of us get it since we all just got over the other cold a couple weeks ago.  This is starting to feel like the plague that hit us in late 2014 and the first few months of 2015.  We had shingles (Craig), long lasting mystery viruses (Craig and me), pinkeye (me, multiple times), stomach bugs (the boys and me), a rash (Jacob), and who knows what else.  It was one thing after another, and I found myself grateful that I lost my job in the middle of it because I never would have had enough sick days to cover it all.  It was exhausting.  I've managed this time around but mostly because I've been working from home every day.  That comes to an end starting tomorrow, when I go back three days per week, so things will get decidedly more complicated (manageable, but still complicated) if the string of sick continues.

Weather has been another sore spot.  I know that crap weather is typical of late March.  I have enough Facebook memories popping up talking about unwelcome snow, crazy wind, and cold rain, so I know what we're dealing with isn't out of the ordinary, but it's been depressing nonetheless.  I know that this year is a little different because there are very few signs of spring right now.  The last couple years we've had either generally warmer winters or enough of a warmer spell during March that things got jump started a bit.  This year, pretty much the only things have been crocuses, visible buds on the maple trees, and greening grass.  But the flowers and the majority of buds are definitely slow to come.  I think the ones I have seen are mostly because the sun has been stronger and the warm days we've had have been really warm.  But because the weather has mostly been consistently cold and blah, I think the rest is holding off.  Most of the decent days we've had (merely a handful) have been ridiculously windy or annoyingly rainy.  We've had snow on multiple days, including today, though only a couple rounds of it have accumulated since the long-term snow pack melted.  But at this point in the year, it sucks because I just want to get out and enjoy the weather.  I'm not asking for a lot--just solid 50s and maybe a couple 60s.  Last Sunday when we were in Buffalo and it snowed, it was in the 20s, and it was cold for all but maybe one day this week, when it was over 65 but with gusty winds and periodic rain.  It took everything I had to find a couple spans of time to hang up Easter eggs outside.  It's just depressing when you look at the two-week forecast and nothing gets out of the 50s, and those 50s are a rare sighting.  The forecast did improve a bit for this week, but Easter still looks like 40s right now!  I expect some flowering plants by about the third week of April and I'm not sure if we'll get there at this point.  Carter and I have a list of playgrounds to visit but after last week's cold ones, I can't say I'm eager to go until it's at least mid-50s and sunny.  I have yard work to do and kids who are eager to get outside, and it just feels like winter is never going to end at this point.  

Beyond that we just have a bunch of nagging stuff as we start the countdown to spring break and Easter, which of course will make things feel like they're dragging even more.  Jacob can't seem to get out of bed in the morning, partly because he hates school and partly because he's an extra stubborn teenager.  He doesn't like me waking him up, but let's face it--it's easier for me to wake him up than to wake up Craig to wake him up, because not hearing your alarm appears to be genetic.  He drags his butt getting ready--don't ask me how--and was late more than he was on time this week.  It's so frustrating because he acts like he's going to get up and I'm trying to let him do it on his own without nagging, but then he goes back to sleep or gets distracted by his phone.  He says it's my fault he's late because I'm "being negative".  He did better Friday but we shall see.  His negativity surrounding his basketball season has been a little better this week, but it will likely be a low-key struggle for him until he has his next tournament this coming weekend to see if he can play a little more.  

Everything with Jacob has been an argument lately.  This weekend he was extra frustrating about trying to get Carter to play basketball with him.  He just can't fathom why Carter won't play with him, but he can't wrap his head around how years of treating Carter like crap has made it really hard for Carter to willingly hang out with him.  Even if he does make efforts to be nice and supportive, if five of their daily interactions are negative and one is positive, it's not hard to understand why Carter might want to limit his exposure to that toxicity.  Most of those negative interactions are Jacob's attempts at being funny, or trying to save Carter from "being a loser", or just general off-hand comments that he can't seem to keep to himself.  He's so used to making those critical comments that he doesn't even realize how much he does it or how it comes off.  It's not like Carter is his best buddy and understands it's a joke--he's used to it being legitimately negative and takes everything that way.  It's sad and frustrating to see how out of sync they are.  Jacob wants to be friends but can't come to terms with the damage he unknowingly did, yet he refuses to make real efforts to fix it now because he doesn't want to admit he might have had a part in it.  

His other favorite thing these days is to argue about the vacation issue.  He is basically demanding to go to Disney.  Look, I get it--I want to be there myself.  But it's not that simple.  He says that we've been saying we're going for four years, and I keep reminding him that two of those years were in the middle of an unexpected pandemic where travel was unwise.  I'm still not sure it's wise, but I can acknowledge that the mental need might start outweighing the safety concerns.  We know we need to do it, we feel a little more comfortable with it financially than we did pre-pandemic, but it's still not something we can make happen tomorrow.  I have a busy month at work, the kids are in school, Jacob has tournaments, and Craig still has another month of games.  Disney isn't really a trip you can plan a couple weeks ahead of time, and even a couple months is going to be pushing it, even though we're not one of those families that must do character breakfasts or even full service restaurants.  I don't really even know where to begin since there's a possibility we could benefit from Craig's parents' Disney Vacation Club membership if that's still a thing.  It's all just a lot to figure out right now.  Jacob is going to be obstinate until it happens and will forever use that as an excuse for why he's miserable all the time.  The thing is, I desperately need a vacation too.  As I feared, I lost out on a potential fun day due to my stupid jury duty this past week.  I was supposed to spend part of the day with Heather and Mason before his doctor appointment in Syracuse (since it was an hour closer), and of course that was the day I got called in.  I was hopeful because I was in the first group of 300, but then no one got called for two days and the first 150 only had to report Monday afternoon, but no--Tuesday morning it was.  I sat there most of the day and got released without ever making it into a courtroom.  Pointless.  I was tormented by having to go back to work the next day without having had that expected day of freedom and fun, so you can only imagine how badly a real vacation might be in order.  It's killing me, too, but I'm just not sure how to make it happen right now.

Fortunately, Craig's season is winding down--only one more roadtrip to go plus three home games, but of course the road game is Easter weekend and will cut into a bunch of the holiday unless he can change his flight.  Jacob has been cheering against the Knighthawks the entire season because he didn't want Craig in the playoffs, and admittedly it's a relief they won't be, especially because the playoff season is so long now.  We manage fine when he's not here, but I know it's tough on the kids.  I feel better listening to his broadcasts, but it's always a relief when he actually walks back in the door each weekend.  The end of the month can't come soon enough--it's been a long season for him and us.  

I'm a little nervous about going back into the office three days per week.  I was fine with it for the couple months it lasted in the fall, but now I've really sort of settled into the benefits of being home, from laundry and sleeping in a bit to pulling out frozen meat midday and watching TV in the background (I found daily binge broadcasts of ER and Facts of Life!).  It also doesn't help that we've lost three more team members since we were last in regularly so it's not even like I'm going to see a lot of people when I'm there.  We're going to have some nice engagement events on Wednesdays (the day everyone has to be there) for the foreseeable future--breakfast one week, food truck lunch another--but it's definitely not going to be what it once was.  And if you're not going to see a lot of people, what's the point of being there?  The push seems to be a combination of maintaining culture and solidarity with other parts of the University that can't work from home.  I hope this will help with my focus and the brain fog I've felt like I've had, but we'll see.  

My headaches have been weird lately--not constant like they once were, but they'll flare up randomly for periods of time here and there.  Minutes sometimes, hours other times, sometimes brought on by activity and sometimes just light or cold.  Running around with Carter has been a trigger, and stress feels like another one.  Sometimes I think it's that my eyes are getting worse.  I can see my computer screen fine when I work, but I've been trying to wear my blue light glasses more because that seems to help.  I can tell my eyes are getting worse with close up stuff, so maybe they're struggling to focus even if it technically works okay right now.  It's just annoying that I don't know what's causing the headaches or when they'll strike.  They're not debilitating, thank goodness, but they're mentally taxing when they happen daily for no apparent reason.  Weekends do seem to be better, so it's possible it's a screen thing, but who knows.   I'm still struggling to have the energy I'd like to have, which is definitely a pandemic thing and maybe still a health thing.  I've been better with working out in streaks (and my last blood work showed my triglycerides have responded well), but this week was hard between Jacob's practice schedule, Carter's cold, and how I was feeling on any given day.

The state of the house has been bugging me too.  It just gets so dirty!  And I feel like I get very little help with it--Jacob never cleans up his bottles, bowls, cups, or empty boxes.  Carter leaves toys and trinkets everywhere and his spot at the table would be a dog's favorite if we had one.  The mess just materializes everywhere and no matter how often I wipe things up, it comes back.  The kitchen floor is perpetually gross.  Everything gets dusty so fast.  The bathroom is ridiculous.  I'm embarrassed to even have anyone in the house because everything is messy and I don't have the energy on a regular basis to clean it the way I'd like.  Nor do I feel like I should be the only one spending all my free time cleaning things.  I'm not the maid, but I mostly feel like that's how everyone sees me.  Jacob made a comment Saturday about the house not being very clean (it was in reference to a spoon having spots on it and him not wanting to use it) and I basically lost my crap on him because he won't even keep his room clean let alone help with the rest of the house.  His room constantly has clothes and towels strewn across the floor despite his hamper being a couple feet away.  He has stuff piled on his dresser, tissues and snack packaging on his ottoman, and other random school supplies and junk left on the floor.  Not to mention how dusty it is or how badly it needs vacuuming, but I refuse to do it when there's stuff everywhere I'd have to work around.  I'm annoyed that our kitchen is a wreck but I haven't worked up the energy to bring in a contractor.  Our carpet desperately needs cleaning but I can't wrap my brain around cleaning up the toys or how they work around furniture.  I am impatiently waiting for our replacement windows because the cracked kitchen window and garage door window make me nuts.  The clutter and the filth up my anxiety level, so maybe getting out of it for nine hours three days of the week will be better for me.  But mostly I'd just like some help.

COVID is still a nagging stressor, as well.  Cases are going back up because of this new variant, but luckily it doesn't seem to be impacting hospitals yet so it appears its severity isn't bad.  But now I feel weirdly stuck again.  I was getting to a point where I was ready to start trying to unmask.  We've gone into a couple restaurants without them since it's just a few minutes before we sit anyway.  I probably will unmask at Wegmans before a lot of other places since it's rare I have close contact with anyone.  But crowded places still bother me.  Last weekend we were among a handful of masked people among the hundreds at Jacob's tournament, and it boggled my mind a bit.  I see a decent number of masked people at stores, and I'm like, stores are probably far safer than sitting next to a bunch of strangers shoulder to shoulder for an hour.  So how were all those people that comfortable?  It's just so confusing to me.  Church is much the same.  Yesterday they announced that the masked space in the gym is going away after Easter.  We can mask in the main sanctuary, but obviously that's less safe and we'll stick out as a very small minority.  The lack of masking probably bothers me more at church because I'd think church people should be more willing to protect one another.  It's a little disorienting and alienating to me.    

But now that cases are back up a bit, I have second thoughts about changing anything.  The University has recommended indoor masking on campus again, but our office isn't ON campus so we can still choose.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do.  I'll mask around my boss for sure, and probably when we have gatherings and meetings, but I'm not sure otherwise.  I feel bad for my kids and I want to ease up for them with school, but these new variants make it hard, not to mention that colds seem to be making their way through now anyway.  It's gotten to the point where I'm almost a tiny bit disappointed when COVID tests come up negative--which is stupid, I know, because I will panic when it happens--but I'm tired of worrying about it and wondering when it will hit us.  If we get it, it will be easier to unmask after, but at what price?  At the same time, Jacob and I are both eligible for boosters (he's past his six months and I can get a second one because I had the J&J shot initially), but I'm just not sure it's worth the minor risks either way at this point since we each have a reasonable amount of immunity already and this variant isn't as severe.  Ugh, I'm just so tired of trying to make these decisions.

I'm fine, everything's fine, but man, I just want things to feel a little lighter.