Phoenix with Friends

Covid quarantine in Washington is ridiculous and keeps getting worse. Lucky for us, Darcy's dad has an air bnb in Phoenix.  There were a lot of cancellations because of covid so we were able to sneak in a long weekend.  We actually went down during the week and I did my teaching from one of the bedrooms.  I guess that's a perk of online teaching, especially with the craziness it is right now.  So we headed down and were happy to embrace mask free, almost completely normal life.  

We spent most of our time at the house and playing in the pool.  A lot of Cornhole also.

We went to a restaurant that has live music, picnic tables, and fire pits thinking it'd be a fun evening.  Unfortunately the food wasn't good and the kids were too antsy and bored to wait for the music to actually start, so we didn't stay long enough to see it.   There was a caricature artist there.  We couldn't get Dillon to do it because I wanted him to take off his sun glasses.  We can actually see the resemblance for Carson.  

Kayda... Not so much.

We found an open water park so of course we had to go!  They had 6 feet marked out for all the lines... Nobody paid any attention. I think a lifeguard said something once.  They had some waterslides that work like rollercoasters that you ride a tube on.  They were pretty fun.  Dillon, Dad, Austin and Landon did a speed slide that has you stand on a platform that drops out from under you.  

COVID crazy part 2 - Ozzi

First came the bearded dragon.  Then came a puppy.  We looked and looked to adopt a rescued puppy.  Unfortunately, we didn't qualify for a lot of the places (we have no fence and no intention of fencing).  We did qualify at one place and they had a constant supply of puppies...but they were adopted faster than you could blink.  I started looking for puppies to buy, it was hard though because we are firm believers in the superiority of "mutts" and most every dog being sold is a purebred.  Then I stumbled on a post about pit bull, lab, plus more puppies in Oregon.  I contacted them and arranged to come see them.  We aren't ones to buy a pet without meeting them in person and I'm so glad we hadn't arranged for a specific puppy.  There were ELEVEN puppies.  Some were blonde, others black, some brindle.  Some had white spots on them, others didn't.  They were all super sweet when we went to meet them.  The dogs all ambushed Carson waiting for pets and sniffing him out.  They lost attention quickly and wandered off.  Except one puppy.  He waited until the rest left and then went to cuddle with Carson.  That was it.  Carson had a puppy and the puppy had a boy.  

We followed the same process with names and the whiteboard.  Carson chose Ozzi.  We often just call him Oz but it definitely suits him.  

We let him explore the long grass in the pasture (longish I guess).  He LOVED it and would have to bounce around instead of running. You'd randomly see this tiny dog head pop up over the grass.  

Ozzi is probably our most photographed pet now, despite Kayda jamming up our photos with Tido over the years.  Since he's out and about there is more opportunity for him to do things that the kids simply can't resist photographing.  Here are some as of August 2021.

Easter in the new house!

First Easter in the new house!  We followed our "new" tradition of stuffing a ridiculous number of plastic eggs with candy.

Notice the blanket in the background?  That is one of the weird cubbies for TV's, in an extra weird spot.  Carson has claimed it as a fort and climbs in there to play on his phone 

Of course, prior to Easter we also had to dye eggs.  

The kids enjoy writing things with the wax crayons before they dye them.

Grandma and Papa H came down to visit.  Dillon was excited to introduce them to Buddy.

COVID crazy - Buddy

Quarantine is kicking our butts.  Carson especially has so much energy that none of us can keep up with him.  He has been asking and asking for a puppy since Hank died.  The answer was always a hard no.  Then COVID came.  Daddy and I talked and talked about it.  Despite knowing it was going to make travelling complicated in the future, we decided we could get a puppy.  But...that means Kayda has a pet, Carson has a pet.... that would leave Dillon out.  Turns out, Dillon has desperately wanted a bearded dragon.  We decide to pull the trigger.  We found a tank with some supplies we'd need on craigslist.  Then went and got a dragon!

We were able to get the bearded dragon before we could find a puppy so we got him first.  We all added possible names to a whiteboard and Dillon would erase them as he decided against them.  We came up with some pretty fun ones but Dillon decided to go the traditional route.  So we have Buddy the bearded dragon now. 

I'm adding to this from August 2021...

This picture is when Buddy had been with us for about a year.  Dillon got a harness with dragon wings from Grandma and Papa H for either Christmas or his birthday.  

After having Buddy for over a year we have discovered he is SUPER chill.  I've wandered around with him tucked into my vest, he'll just sit on you for a long time.  Every now and then he gets energetic and he will jump off the couch and go explore every nook and cranny he can find.  Ozzi makes him nervous for obvious reasons but there haven't been any problems between the two.  

We've taken Buddy outside a few times.  He hasn't been a real big fan.  He'll puff up his throat and turn black.  We're working on that.  Our friends that have a bearded dragons would take him to soccer practice in November!  I won't take him out then since it's so cold then, but he should be able to go with us most anywhere.  

Unfortunately, we can't bring him with us on ANY trips.  Our neighbor is really cool about swinging by every few days to give him water and some munchies, and he really likes Buddy too! 

Sports cut short

COVID well and truly tore the kids' lives apart.  They are all athletic and LOVE their sports.  I enjoy that they are getting great exercise, that they have a way to connect to their peers and they learn work ethic.  They can feel their own improvement, recognize where they need to grow and then work hard to make it happen.  Every single one of their seasons got cut short.  

Kayda's volleyball started in December of 2019.  They had multiple tournaments left in the season when everything shut down.  Here are the pictures I have. 

Back: Kaitlyn, Reba, Reese, Araya, Sabrina, Payton, Kaelyn, Emily

Front: Kiera, Kennedi, Berkley (not a teammate), Lauren and of course, Kayda

This girl can serve!  She's probably the second most consistent server this season. 

Dillon and Carson were trying lacrosse for the first time.  We actually had to slip Carson in late, he didn't decide to try it until he was tossing a ball around with Dillon.  The "competitive" team coach was upset that he didn't have the chance to snag him because of how quickly he picked it up. 

Dillon's school basketball season was not cut short.  It is kind of unfortunate actually.  Dillon did NOT enjoy it.  This was the first year they allowed 6th graders to play.  There were WAY too many kids.  They had something like 90 students play.  30 of those made up JV and Varsity.  The rest were a huge mass of C teams.  They were bounced around between coaches and never actually taught anything.  It was a hot mess.  Dillon told me very specifically that he had no interest in playing school sports after that.  I think he wants to try football next year though.  I believe that's still restricted to 7th and 8th grades so hopefully it's a better experience. 

COVID-19

This information is based on our situation as of August 2021...  I just wanted to put it in order of where it started. 

In 2019 a "novel" virus was found. It was sweeping through China and quickly started working through the world.  It officially was seen in the US in early 2020 but believed here months before.  In March I started having students disappear as the fear mongering began.  March 11th I had a student say "My dad is a reporter and says they're going to shut down the schools".  I laughed and said I doubted that.  

Sure enough.  March 13th they announced they would be closing schools for 6 weeks starting March 17th.  We ended up not going back in the next week.   The official stay at home order began March 23rd, it was supposed to be two weeks to "flatten the curve" to help the hospitals be able to handle the number of people going through. It turned into the longest two weeks I've ever experienced...  We were told to minimize going out in public.  To stay six feet apart or wear a mask.  OR quickly turned into a mandate that you HAD to wear a mask in public.  Governor Inslee, in his infinite wisdom (note the sarcasm), shut everything down.  Restaurants, gyms, schools, construction, salons, sports... anything deemed "non-essential".  He even went as far as to release people from jail.  Thousands of people lost their jobs, sometimes their businesses.  Businesses that disagreed were fined significantly.  He has managed to destroy business and lives.  We had a gigantic loss of money from unemployment due to fraud in addition to the strain of supporting all the people that were quarantined.  Stimulus checks were introduced based on your previous year's taxes.  Large enough that when people were finally allowed back to work, people wouldn't go because they made more with the stimulus and unemployment than they did working full time.  School ended up being exclusively digital until February 2021.   By the way...the flu has magically disappeared.  Those numbers were probably absorbed into the COVID numbers. 

All in the name of "flattening the curve" which evolved into "stopping COVID".  Which is literally impossible with a virus.  Numbers were manipulated to the extreme, huge numbers of people were recorded as dying from COVID despite having died from unrelated things (gunshot wounds, cancer etc).  The Hawaiian islands completely shut down.  All of this following the "science" that seemed to change every other day and constantly contradicted itself. 

Watching all of this happen, completely helpless to do anything was excruciating.  I absolutely do not agree with the way this is being handled.  Why shut down the entire state?  It didn't matter your numbers, every city and town was treated the same way.  The people with the risk factors (elderly and immune compromised) and their care givers were the only ones I believe should have been quarantined.  Let the healthy people, with few to no risk factors get it and work it through the population.  It's impossible to stop a virus without people being exposed.  

Now they've magically come up with a vaccine.  For a virus they recently said you could get multiple times.  If you can get a virus multiple times, it's impossible to make a vaccine.  That was expecting people to be logical, rational, and informed.  Which we all know is a ridiculous expectation in these times.  People's minds and opinions are centered around the agenda of the news and social media.  All of which worked very hard to scare people into compliance.  I have never bought into a conspiracy until COVID.  Combine the fear mongering with the fraud that happened in this year's presidential election... it screams manipulation and fallacy.  

The courts are refusing to allow investigation of the voting counts.  They are actively suppressing them.  COVID and vaccine data is being manipulated to show a specific result.  Any doctors, pharmacists, respiratory specialists, virologists standing against the "science", despite their specialties are being suppressed.  Google and Bing searches provide bias results.  The "other" side is censored and kept from the public.  If you go to the multitude of other search platforms you suddenly see information from the other side.  Information is contested and it is clear that the "results" the "science" is getting isn't valid OR proven.  

Vaccines are free now and pushed heavily.  Employers are starting to require the vaccine. It is "emergency" approved but hasn't gone through the full FDA approval process.  Complications and deaths from the vaccine are being actively hidden from the public by all the major players that control the news.  Things like potential infertility, heart enlargement, paralysis and death.  There is concern for long-term health issues also, specifically related to the vaccine.  None of this matters.  The vaccine isn't preventing people from spreading COVID, it isn't keeping people from getting it again...what's the point then beside a political agenda?

They're going so far as to say that natural immunity is less effective than the vaccine.  Despite the fact that they have no proof.  The testing required to determine that is expensive, extensive and requires a longer period of time than has passed.  I personally believe that natural immunity is ALWAYS going to be more effective than a vaccine.  To be clear I am not an "anti-vaxer".  My children get all the standard vaccinations.  There are terrible diseases that are being prevented by vaccines.  However, those are ALL situations where they know with absolute certainty you will have a lifetime immunity.  They do not mutate.  COVID is mutating already, variants are showing up everywhere.  It is more like the flu that is constantly changing.  You will be getting boosters with their guess about it's mutation.  It isn't always effective, it isn't correct most of the time.  It only provides you minor protection in the form of reducing your symptoms if you catch it.  

There is even a new variant that is conveniently targeting children.  So now there is talk of emergency approving the vaccine for children under 12.  This companies are making HUGE profits and it sure feels like they're in bed with the government.  Wonder where the money is changing hands or if it's all about the power the government is getting. 

They are saying now that 90% of the COVID cases that require hospitalization are unvaccinated people.  The whole point (initially) was to make it so hospitals could handle the load.  Meanwhile some of the medical clinics and even hospitals in certain areas were struggling to remain open because no one was going to the doctor...for anything.  I think their initial purpose has been satisfied, yet almost a year and a half later we're still in the middle of it.  They opened up some and now are in the process of shutting us down again.

Now they are starting to segregate based on whether you received the vaccine or not.  It's illegal to segregate based on race, but this is okay.  Any HIPAA protection is quickly being bypassed.  New York has already prohibited unvaccinated people from certain spaces.  They went so far as to try to ban unvaccinated children from public spaces (including school) fortunately a judge shut that one down.  

At what point will we have to cave?  I have no idea.  If I'm required to get the vaccine to work, I honestly don't know what I'll do.  If they try to go near my children with that particular needle though...  I will move, I will find a way to be a stay at home mom again and homeschool them...I will find a way to prevent it.  All of this has made me wary of any vaccine.  I will continue the standard set of vaccinations for Carson.  The flu vaccine is out, COVID vaccine is out.  I will protect my children from this nonsense at any cost.