Our Week - The One with Quarantine, Week 30 (Flu Shots and Star Gazing)

We had a lovely five days in the mountains this past week, so today’s recap is short and sweet since I’ll be recapping the trip separately.

Before I get into last week’s recap, don’t forget that today and tomorrow is AMAZON PRIME DAY!!!!  I’ll be sharing lots of deals in my Instagram stories, so be sure to follow along both days so you don’t miss out on any of the good stuff!!  You do have to be an Amazon Prime member to shop the sale, so if you’re not already, you can sign up for a free trial here.  I do a lot of our Christmas shopping during this sale every year… most of the deals are just as good as Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.  You can shop here if you're already a Prime member.

Monday, October 5 (Day 206 of Quarantine)

Monday morning, I got in a dance workout, and then B and I went to Publix to get our flu shots.  FYI, if you have Publix grocery stores, you can get your flu shot at one of their pharmacies, and they’ll give you a $10 Publix gift card.  Our insurance covers 100% of our flu shots, so it’s free money for us!  B and I got our $20 and then grabbed a few things with our gift cards while we were there.

The rest of the day was spent working, and then Monday after school, the kids and I swung by their pediatrician’s office to get their flu shots.  I would have liked to have taken them to Publix to get theirs so they could each get a $10 gift card, too, but Olivia still freaks out when she has to get a shot, and I didn’t want to risk dealing with a screaming freakout in the grocery store.  Haha.

Our pediatrician typically has a flu shot clinic in the basement of their building, but this year because of Covid – of course – they had a curbside clinic instead.  We just pulled into a designated spot in the parking lot, called the number on the sign, checked the kids in over the phone, and then a masked nurse came out to the car to give them their shots. 

Olivia did so well leading up to the actual shot, but the minute the nurse started wiping her leg with the alcohol wipe, she started crying and writhing around and telling the nurse no.  She had watched Jacob get his first and he didn’t even flinch, so I thought for sure she’d be okay, too.  We were finally able to calm her down enough so the nurse could do it, and just like last year, once it was over, she admitted that it didn’t even hurt.  Sigh. 

I have to say, she did so much better this year than last, though… last year she screamed her head off the entire car trip there and the entire time we were waiting in the waiting room, so this was a huge improvement.  Maybe next year, no tears?  Haha.

I made vodka sausage pasta for dinner Monday evening, and since we had nowhere to be, we finally settled in to watch the America’s Got Talent finale… two weeks later.  Haha.  Olivia asked for a festive treat, so we popped some popcorn and added candy corn to it.  Simple and delicious. 

I was thrilled because Brandon Leake won AGT… he is a spoken word artist and he was absolutely incredible week after week on the show.  His first performance about Black inequality as well as his two subsequent performances moved me to tears.  His win was well-deserved, and I hope to see him one day when he has his own show in Vegas.  SO much talent, y’all.  If you missed his performances, you can see my favorite one here.

After the show was over, we had promised the kids that we could go outside to see some stars and planets in the night sky.  Jacob has been learning about the planets in great depth in science these last couple of weeks, so he wanted to see what he could see. 

My brother and sister-in-law both work at NASA and are total astronomy/space geeks, so I texted my bro to ask which planets were visible right then, and he told me that Jupiter and Saturn were both visible without a telescope.  Jupiter was really bright, and Saturn was dimmer and to the left of Jupiter.  Sure enough, we stepped outside, and that’s exactly what we saw.  Mars was visible about an hour later, but the kids were long asleep by the time it appeared in the east. 

My bro and I texted back and forth for a while so he could answer some of Jacob’s questions, and during our convo he randomly informed us that Jupiter is 458 million miles away from us.  I know I learned all of that when I was a kid, but you just don’t realize the enormity of it when you’re young.  Isn’t it just so crazy that we can see something that’s 458 million miles away?! 

Tuesday, October 6 (Day 207 of Quarantine)

Tuesday, I worked in my office all morning, and then B and I went to a local Greek restaurant to pick up lunch.  It’s my favorite lunch in the whole city so it’s always such a treat.  Everything is just so fresh and healthy and wonderful.  We took it back home to eat, of course, but it was nice getting out and about a little bit.  We’re still not eating out at all, other than that one time we ate outside recently, and I sure do miss it.

Tuesday evening, Jacob had a late baseball game, so we had breakfast for dinner and then headed to the ballpark afterward.  Olivia had already showered and had wet hair, so she let me put her hair in French braids for the game.  She rarely wants me to do her hair anymore, so I soak it up when she does!

Jacob ended up having one of his best games ever with three singles, one double, two RBIs, and three runs scored.  He batted five times, but one of the times he hit a pop fly that was caught in the outfield.  

Their team ended up winning 21-9, and really, the score would have been even more lopsided if our coach hadn’t completely switched up the boys’ positions in the third inning to show the other team some mercy.  They have a 10-run mercy rule in our league for this age group, so the coaches were trying to keep the game close enough so the boys could finish the game.  Otherwise we would have had to stop after two or three innings.  Haha.

Wednesday, October 7 (Day 208 of Quarantine)

Wednesday morning, I was up bright and early to get the kids to school and then I spent the next four hours packing and prepping for our trip like a mad woman.  I usually start packing for our trips several days in advance since it’s so much work, but for the first time ever, I didn’t pack a single thing until the day we left.  Who even am I?

I ended up getting it all done with about 15 minutes to spare before I had to get in the car line at noon.  Since the kids had early release, there was no lunch served, so we stopped by Chick-Fil-A on the way home, and then we ate at home and headed out for the mountains.  I’ll be recapping our entire trip next week, so stay tuned!!