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.  

School activities

This year Kayda took photography and had a really good time.  They actually use an app on their phone for some of the editing.  She had to submit a photo to the art show.  This is the picture she took.  We are enamored with the fields around us (and of course the view of the mountain).  She took off into the pasture and took this picture.  I wish the grass was longer.  Maybe it will grow in tall and beautiful in the spring.  

Dillon ended up in choir.  The students either sign up for band for the full year as their elective or they choose the "rotation" which is a random selection that changes each quarter.  He didn't enjoy choir but ended up singing the same solo as Kayda did last year.  

Carson had his 3rd grade concert.  The concerts he has been able to do have been much more elaborate than the ones Kayda and Dillon ever had the opportunity to do.  They dance, wear costumes, play instruments... Kayda and Dillon got to stand in place and do arm movements, and play instruments.  Of course, Kayda and Dillon also ended up singing a lot of songs in other languages.  Carson's group never really did that.  

Flooding!

There was rain...so much rain.  It was filling the rivers to the point they sent kids home early from school.  It kept coming.  We ended up having school cancelled for a couple of days.  The creek east of Orting flooded so badly the highway was shut down.  You had to drive up out of the valley and come down from the other side (adds about 45 minutes of driving for those people).  They uploaded drone footage and you couldn't even see where the road was for a lot of it.  The river closest to us got up so high it was almost touching the bridge and came up to the very top of the levee.  It was running high and fast.  You can see the bridge WAY in the back of this picture.

Daddy and I decided we wanted to check out the river so we were just going to grab McDonald's real quick.  I heard they cancelled school so I let Kayda know on the drive.  She was very nervous so we couldn't resist messing with her. 

She didn't appreciate the joke.  

We were never worried since we're tucked back away from the river and our house is actually built above the 100 year flood plain.  It was really fun to watch.  There were all kinds of cool pictures.  A coworker actually went onto one of the walking bridges on the other river and the water was going up and over their feet....on top of the bridge.  

It was actually really cool to see, we probably won't see anything like that again for a LONG time.  They're now working on repairing the levee where the water got to the top.  It was significantly eroded. 

Dillon's 12th Birthday

Dillon turned 12!  First birthday celebrated in the new house.  It's been kind of chaotic getting unpacked and painting bedrooms.  We took a break to go to dinner with Grandma and Papa H.   

He's super excited to try this on the sledding hills!

Christmas!

First Christmas in the new house!  Unfortunately, because we moved in so recently, we weren't able to really decorate.  We got a couple of decorations outside, the tree, the stockings and some lights on the banister.  We celebrated part of Christmas on Christmas Eve with Grandma and Papa G before they headed to Uncle Justin and Aunt Ayana's.  

Not that you can see it, but the kids were super entertained that one of the ribbons we had was super glittery.  So when Papa G was COVERED in the glitter.  The kids kept going over and shaking the ribbon over him too. 

Christmas afternoon Grandma and Papa H came down to exchange gifts too.   We appreciate that they're willing to come visit us.  We stopped going up that way in the mornings since we live a bit away and we like to be home for the mornings.  

 

Moving!

We've been talking about finding a house with some land for a while, we were tired of living in a neighborhood.  We had one neighbor we really liked, otherwise, we were surrounded by a weird group of people.  Our kids didn't really go play with friends in the neighborhood like we had hoped so we were living in one for no valid reason.  Beyond it being what we could afford when we bought it.  Me taking a full time job changed all of that.  We had been kind of poking around for fun and went to look at a few places.  We weren't really seriously looking until I kind of broke.  That seems to be the way it goes.  We are fine... Until we aren't.  In this case it came down to being sick and having to deal with the neighbor's ridiculous barking dog.  That thing NEVER shut up.  We talked to the neighbors multiple times, nothing was changing.  It had a deep bark that echoed off all the ridiculously close houses around us.  It would sit in the middle of the yard and bark.  Just sitting there, nothing was around, nothing was moving, it would just be barking.  I was sick, tried to take a nap multiple times and Every. Single. Time. That dog was barking.  I ended up with a sinus infection that I shouldn't have had to deal with and I was finished.   Let me describe this to you..

Neighbor 1: across the street, awesome, we'll actually miss them

Neighbor 2: kitty corner, had kids out on the front porch smoking pot constantly, saw multiple times where they were buying out of a car right there on the street

Neighbor 3: rental house, people smoked on the front porch and in the summer, without ac our windows would have to be open, smoke went straight into Carson's room

Neighbor 4: The nightmare dog

Neighbor 5: They had rock up against the fence that was breaking it. Asked them to move it multiple times, they never did.  Daddy finally climbed over the fence and moved the rock so we could repair it.  They also had a dog that liked to break into our yard.  It broke the fence in multiple places.  We brought it to their attention and they did nothing, so we had to patch it to keep their dogs contained. 

Neighbor 6: their fence fell down in a wind storm and they just left it.  They didn't fix it for months. Just had the broken fence, which absolutely wasn't ours, sitting there.  

Keep in mind, neighbors 3-6 had yards that touched ours.  We actually had another neighbor that shared some fence, it wasn't much and we didn't have any problems with them.

Anyway, we were done and everything was kind of a hot mess around us.  Pretty soon, looking for fun became serious.  We had a realtor friend that we worked with and she was awesome.  We saw three really weird houses. One could've been really cool but would've needed a total overhaul, it was trashed.  Really glad we didn't go that route.  We just didn't have the time to devote to a long term project like that  We saw three houses besides the one we ended up with.  Initially our impression was that it was too "fancy" for us.  When we went back around and saw it again it wasn't as uppity as we originally thought.  We put in a full price offer with $5000 earnest money and it was accepted.  

Then we had to rush to actually finish our house.  There was touch up to do, cleaning to do and of course... All the baseboards.  We made it in time!  Lucky for us we had painted the outside last summer (never again by the way).  Here are the professional pictures.  4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, living, dining, family, den, laundry, and bonus. 3100 square feet.  2 car garage.  About 1/5 of an acre.  Big for most neighborhoods here unfortunately. 

Here are the professional pictures of the new house.  Not all of the rooms are pictured.  4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, living, dining, den, butler's pantry, and bonus.  3400 square feet.  3 car garage and of course, the shop.  On 4.5 acres.  It has a few things we could do without (2 stair cases?) and we lost the laundry room.  There is a room between the garage and main house with an optional washer/dryer hook up.  After experiencing walking through laundry to go in and out of the garage in our first house.... we decided to put the washer/dryer in the closet upstairs where there was an existing hook up. 

Getting ownership ended up being ridiculous.  The mortgage broker that our realtor suggested ended up being completely incompetent.  We come up on the closing date and we are told there is an issue on OUR buyer's side.  They get it sorted.  Then our lender tried to push us into an FHA despite putting 25% down.  We said no because it required mortgage insurance.  Then at the 11th hour, we're told that there was a process that they didn't realize existed for our loan.  Which THEY found and recommended.  It was part of an investor's package and there was an extra approval process that was required.  That our people didn't do.  We were told you WILL be approved.  We just have to get through the process, which there is no way to speed up.  We ended up rolling the dice.  We began moving our belongings into the garage and shop of the new house.  Of course our buyers wanted possession Friday.  Which meant none of the people we would've asked for help were available.  Fortunately, Grandma and Papa H made the trip from South Dakota with their big moving trailer.  We got it done, we had to take time off work and we all just about killed ourselves, but it was done in time.  Grandma Peggy came down and helped clean up as we were finishing the move and we were really grateful when some of Daddy's family came and helped us move some of the bigger items upstairs.  I told Daddy that if we move again, I want to hire a moving company.  Or even pay some high school kids to come help.  We moved in December 19th, without owning the home.  We basically rented it from the prior owner until we were FINALLY able to get our loan approved and closed January 10th.  We were coming up very quickly on the "I'm not doing this anymore" point with the prior owner.  It was VERY stressful.  

As always, the very first thing we did was paint the kids' rooms.   As we go, we have to paint all the ceilings white.  Eventually we'll need to change out or paint all the baseboards.  

Kayda's 

Carson's

Dillon's

The next project was turning the downstairs "laundry" into a mud room. 

We took out an upper cabinet and the wire shelf above the sink....and got to work.