Mom's crazy first week of school

This was an interesting beginning of the school year.  I am helping with volleyball while they look for a third coach.  I won't coach because Kayda's team would have games at the same time as mine and I refuse to miss hers.

The night before school started (Tuesday) I was helping with volleyball.  While waiting for the parent meeting I got a phone call from my principal.  I was a "close contact".  Two of the coworkers I sat with at kick off tested positive for covid.  This turned into "put in for a sub for tomorrow, go do a rapid test, if it's negative come in as soon as possible".  Being super efficient and connected, I was able to get ahold of a rapid test that evening and it came out negative.  So I got to cancel my sub and actually teach the first day.  I feel bad for the teachers that have to miss the first 3-5 days of school.    There actually ended up being 6 teachers out I believe, just at the high school.  I don't know about the other schools.

That wasn't the end of my adventures though... During 6th period of the first day, I was teaching, went to pull down the projector screen and the entire thing came down on my head.  We're talking about 8ft of metal casing and the screen itself.  The entire bracket had come out of the wall.  So now my head and neck hurt.  Yay!  

One of the maintenance staff came in... His response was "I have nothing but bad words".   It's actually one of the heaviest screens they have because it's a wide screen.  The bracket had been put up using the plastic anchors they provide for curtain rods...  This is a good 30+ lbs, plus the force of pulling the screen down.  We checked out the other bracket and it was also half out.  It had been screwed directly into the drywall without even using anchors.  Talk about dangerous!  He came in and fixed it, it would take significant effort to get that thing off the wall again.  He promised that "someone would have to take it down on purpose" and "if it comes down again I'll quit".   Good guy.

  I saw stars, then it was just my neck hurting.  I thought I was fine and would just be sore. Over the next couple of days my head started feeling fuzzy and "full" for lack of a better term, I can't concentrate or think clearly, I am really tired and holy heck my emotions are all over the place.  I finally decided to go to urgent care Friday.  My appointment at my normal one was cancelled because they don't do work related injury. So I went to the one they recommended but because I didn't have record of BOTH of my negative tests from being covid exposed they wouldn't treat me.  I had a picture of one but the other was done at school and they didn't give us our results.  I went home very emotional and frustrated.

Come Saturday I made an appointment for a rapid test so I could go to the urgent care. Just for the urgent care to tell me not to come, to go to the ER instead since they didn't have the diagnostic equipment that night be needed. So I didn't even need the negative test.

So off to the ER I go... Which was almost empty in case you were wondering.  They had me into a room within twenty minutes of walking in.  The doctor came in immediately.  Did some tests, decided imaging wasn't even necessary.  Prescribed me some pain meds for my neck, then walked away.  He didn't listen to all the stuff I was experiencing with my head which was frustrating.   Gave me no suggestions on what I should/shouldn't be doing...I had to ask the nurse that brought me my paperwork if they thought I had a concussion or what was going on.  I have a "mild" concussion since there was no black outs, pupil discrepancies, or vomiting.  

They asked me if I wanted days off.  Wanted, no, being gone as a teacher is miserable.  Hopefully I don't end up needing them.   Now I'll have a couple weeks+ of needing to chill out as much as possible while my brain heals itself.  So irritating.

On top of that, with the governor's vaccination mandate, our calculus teacher and her firefighter husband have decided to leave the state.  This could very well mean they're making HUGE changes to the master schedule and all the students.  Finding a new calculus teacher at this point would be next to impossible.   They need to move things around to get our college certified teacher all the college in the classroom classes.  I'd be really surprised if they chose not to move things around.

On that note... We're seeing estimates as high as 1 in 8 nurses refusing to the vaccination and 1 in 4 emergency responders.  For a state so worried about being able to care for the sick people... They've certainly found a way to make it worse.  Hopefully that is rescinded before we lose a lot of qualified staff in areas that already have shortages.  That applies to education too but the emergency/medical is much more urgent.

First day of school!

 We finally get to be back in the classroom full time!  Kayda's in grade 9, Dillon's grade 8 and Carson is in 5th grade. 

Kayda's first day:

There was nothing exciting about starting at the high school... Except volleyball.  She has friends in a couple of classes and is with her best friend for lunch.  She's going to get a lot of steps walking clear across campus a couple of times a day.

Dillon's first day:

His first day was okay. He wasn't impressed with a couple of his teachers. He's excited about having two PE classes, one with his best friend.  They've split lunch in half so you have 15 minutes to eat and then trade to "recess" since they have to limit the number of kids in the cafeteria.  

Carson's first day:

He likes his teacher and has one good friend in his class.  Unfortunately at recess they aren't allowed to play with other classes.  

We're actually all excited about his placement.  He has the teacher Dillon had for 4th grade and she is co-teaching with Kayda and Dillon's 5th grade teacher.

Girls backpacking trip

We finally got to go backpacking again!  We weren't able to go the last couple of years but we were able to do a 2 night trip with Auntie Kina on her birthday weekend! We tried to go to Shellrock Lake to try something new. Unfortunately, there was a wildfire too close so the trail was closed.  We headed to Packwood lake since it was close and we'd been there before.  Turned out to be a good thing.  We're not in hiking shape to do much more than we did.  The length was the same but the elevation change would've been triple what we did. Packwood Lake is the first place we went backpacking and it was... uninspiring.  Part of that was weather, the other was our campsite.  We were excited to be backpacking no matter which trail though.

We got to camp around lunchtime.  Since it was Friday we had a ton of choices of campsites. We followed the trail around the lake and found an amazing site!  It was down from the trail, you could barely see the only campsite next to us and we had our own private water entry.

The first thing we did after getting to camp was to put up the hammocks!  It was awesome that we had enough trees to put THREE up next to each other! A lot of time was spent in the hammocks.  Mostly reading, or in Kayda and Kina's case, napping.  Best last minute purchase of the trip for sure.

The smoke was fairly heavy.  We couldn't smell it but you could definitely feel it.

It was nice and toasty Friday so we spent almost the whole time in our swimsuits after setting up camp.

Our campsite...  It was empty a ways to the right.  Then there was a big divide before the next useable site.

I got an expandable 2 gallon jug.  We filled it twice.  The first day Kayda insisted on doing it all herself. Saturday we worked together.

On the hike in I had mentioned that people recommended bringing a floaty but I didn't want to carry the weight.  Kina simply said that we did, in the form of our sleeping mats.  We kind of forgot about it that day.  However, Saturday we decided to give it a go.  

It turned out to be AWESOME and it was warm enough that they dried out quickly for bedtime.  Just in case you were wondering...mine won.

The smoke cleared up just in time for us to be leaving.

We took this picture so we could remember exactly where to find the campsite. We've decided this will be our annual trip. Forget having to find a new one.  We love this spot!

On the hike back we found huckleberries and wild blueberries.  I take after Papa G and thoroughly enjoyed "grazing" on the berries on the way back.

Side note: We found it really entertaining that the boys went camping with Daddy's family.  Daddy would only camp if they could be in the trailer.  Then the girls went backpacking!  Talk about role reversals.

Boys Trip To Packwood

Uncle Pat rented a lot in Packwood and invited everyone to come.  Since Mom and Kayda were backpacking, the boys headed up.  Uncle Pat's Family, Grandma and Papa Hanis, Uncle Greg and Aunt Liz, and Uncle Scott's Family were all there part of the weekend.  They squeezed 3 trailers, all the vehicles, and 3 tents into the lot.  

Daddy had fun reminiscing about the old days he spent in Packwood.  His grandparents (Baba and Grandpa Hanis) owned a lot and cabin in Packwood (High Valley) for over 30 years.  Daddy spent a lot of time there growing up with his parents, brothers, grandparents, uncles/aunts, and cousins.  

He went around showing the boys where the cabin was, the creek they would play in behind it, they walked along the dike that divided the lot from the Cowlitz River, swimming in the community pool, eating pizza at the Packwood Pizza Parlor, and golfing at the nine hole course in the High Valley community (they were able to play two 9 hole rounds).  The boys also had a blast playing with their cousins, as always.  It was a quick trip but fun.

Getting ice cream in town.

The cabin in the back (which was an old water pump shed that was hauled up, and the mobile home to the right (you can see the window and deck.

When Daddy was a kid, where everyone is sitting used to be the main channel of the Cowlitz River.  You could not swim in it as the rapids were to fast.  Now, it was perfect for sitting and playing in.

Butter Peak

Carson's 10th Birthday!

Today Carson turned 10!  We officially no longer have any single digit ages in our little family.  Carson has determined that he isn't ACTUALLY 10 until 10:17 p.m. 

Yesterday we had to finish our camping recovery program.  Then we played Dino-opoly (I hate any monopoly games so it's my best gift for him).  Later Leelan, Avry, Kristee and Zach came over for a few hours.  The kids had a great time running around.  The weather was too yucky for any pool time though.  

Today we started with presents (I swear he was going to bounce out of his skin).  Then he worked his way through playing with each thing.  The boy is loved and had many wonderful people thinking of him.   Kayda gave him the gift of time in the pool.  Dillon has an ear ache but Kayda said she would play in the pool for at least 20 minutes.  They switched over to the hot tub and lasted a little longer though. 

We ended up having dinner at Red Robin with Grandma and Papa H. 

I got my hands on some relighting candles.  It took a good long while until he could get them all to STAY out.