Our Week - The One with Quarantine, Week 33 (Another Hurricane and Halloween)

We had a fun and festive holiday weekend, and now we’re in full-on Christmas mode over here, y’all!  But before we delve into all things Christmas, let’s recap our Halloween week!  I apologize in advance because this post is going to be ridiculously long.  Haha.

Monday, October 26 (Day 227 of Quarantine)

Monday, I spent the entire day in my office, listening to Christmas music and working on blog posts.  I’ll be starting my holiday gift guides this week, and they’re always very time intensive, so I started doing some browsing to save ideas.  Stay tuned for the first gift guide tomorrow!

Monday evening, we had nowhere to be, so I cooked dinner while the kids did homework, and they also put together trick-or-treat bags for our neighborhood kids.  Trick-or-treating was not banned in our city, but many of our neighbors took the pandemic very seriously, and they decided to do things differently this year to keep everyone safe.  A lot of them decided in advance to set up tables by the street with individual bags of candy laying out, so the kids would be able to grab a bag without getting close to anyone.  By putting together the individual bags of candy, that meant that the kids didn’t have to stick their hands in a candy bucket that 50 other little germy hands had touched.  Winning! 

We found out Monday evening that another one of my cousins had tested positive for Covid, so please keep him in your prayers.  So far, his symptoms are mild, and we’re praying it stays that way.  That makes seven of our family members who have had it now.  And my other cousin who had it a couple of months ago is still struggling with blood clots.  It’s been a long, hard road for her, so please continue to keep her in your prayers.  She’s only a couple of years older than me, so that makes it even more scary.

Tuesday, October 27 (Day 228 of Quarantine)

Tuesday morning, I dropped the kids at school, and then I had to drop Maui at the vet for her annual checkup and vaccines.  When I got home, I got in a 2.5 mile run, and then I worked some more on gift guides until it was time to go pick up the kids.

I picked up Maui from the vet on the way to get the kids, and then we headed home for homework.

Jacob had a baseball game Tuesday evening, and it was neck and neck the whole time until the other team pulled away and won it, 9-6.  Jacob got one single and one run, and his other two at-bats resulted in a groundout and a solid line drive straight to the left-fielder, which he caught.  Boooo.  It started raining about halfway through the game, so we thought for sure they’d have to call it, but they stuck it out and played until the end. 

We picked up CFA on the way home, and then B and I ended the night with some eggnog ice cream (YAAAASSSS) and The Bachelorette.  Claire is getting on my last nerve, BTW. 

Wednesday, October 28 (Day 229 of Quarantine)

Wednesday morning, I did a dance workout after I dropped the kids at school, and the entire rest of the day was spent working on holiday gift guides and listening to Christmas music.  Now that our local station is playing Christmas tunes, my 90’s romantic comedy watching has come to a screeching halt.  Pretty soon I’ll be busting out the 90’s and early 2000’s Christmas romantic comedies, though!!!!  Serendipity anyone?

Olivia had ballet Wednesday afternoon and her teacher let the girls wear costumes.  She wanted to wear her new costume that she’s wearing for Halloween this year, but it’s very long and bulky, and I didn’t think she would be able to dance very well in it.  She has literally every single princess dress (plus a ton of other characters) known to man, and she ended up selecting her Moana costume for dance.  The Moana costume shows her midriff so we don’t let her wear it out in public, so she was ecstatic to get to “have her belly button showing” at dance.  Please pray for us.  Haha.

As always, in these Covid times, I sat out in the car while she was in dance.  I've been using this time each week to get caught up on emails!

We had nowhere else to be Wednesday evening, so we made breakfast for dinner, and then enjoyed the last of daylight.  We knew the following week it would be dark by the time we finish dinner, so we soaked up the last moments before the time changed.  Anybody else wish we would just pick a time and stick with it?? 

Wednesday night after the kids went to bed, B and I watched the premiere of This is Us, and it’s SO GREAT to have TV to watch again!!  And y’all, my gosh, the season premiere was fantastic!  I cried the whole way through it.

Thursday, October 29 (Day 230 of Quarantine)

In the middle of the night Wednesday night, going into Thursday morning, Hurricane Zeta hit our area.  It woke me up around 2 AM, and the wind was something serious.  Our power went out at 2:30 AM, and then for the next four hours it stormed and that wind was crazy.  There were a few times when I thought the shingles might be ripping off the roof. 

The storm woke Olivia around 3, and since the power was out, her nightlight was off, so instead of running to our room like she usually does when she’s scared, she just lay in the bed and yelled for us.  Bless her heart.  I ran in there and carried her back to our room, and then we all tried to get some sleep.  B and Olivia were able to get back to sleep, but the wind was so dang loud it was freaking me out and I ended up staying awake until my alarm went off at 6.

The hurricane had finished passing through right as we got up, but the power was still out, so getting the kids ready for school was interesting.  We only got about 15 minutes into the process when we received a message from the school saying that school had been canceled due to some flooding on campus and the fact that their power was out, too.

 

Around 8 AM, it finally started getting light outside, and we were able to go check everything out.  All of the cushions on our patio were blown over and one of my big herb pots had fallen over and broken, but other than that everything was good.  B did later discover that the gate on our fence also broke because the wind had somehow blown it backwards, but it’s no big deal in the scheme of things.

Since the power was still out at breakfast time, I decided to go out and grab Starbucks, and B wanted donuts, so I grabbed some of those, too.  We didn’t want to open the refrigerator so as to preserve the food for as long as possible, so it was a good excuse to get a little treat. 

Our power finally came back on around 9:45 AM, and I was relieved to see that the freezer items were still solid with ice crystals on them almost seven and a half hours later.  The fridge, however, was 46 degrees.  Sigh.

My momma and daddy had been out of town helping out my brother and sister-in-law since my SIL just had surgery, so nobody was at their house during the storm.  They have a very large tree in the front yard that dropped a huge branch on the roof during our last big storm, so my daddy called and asked me to go check on their house.

While I was there, I was able to talk to my friend’s mom who also lives in their ‘hood, and she told me that the power never went out there, so they didn’t have to worry about their perishables.  The tree and roof also looked fine, though it had dropped some smaller branches all over the front yard. 

The cover on my dad’s sports car, however, had blown completely off, but fortunately no water had leaked inside, so I was able to get the cover back on and he didn’t have any issues.  When I told my dad that the cover had blown off, he couldn’t believe it because he secures it so tightly with bungee cords.  That wind was fierce!

Since the kids were home from school all day, I decided to clean out both of their rooms.  It was long overdue, especially since they were home for five months straight during quarantine dirtying them up… their rooms were absolutely awful.  I also tackled some house cleaning that needed to be done, and then I finally showered just before going down to make dinner.

Before... doesn't look so bad, but it was way worse than it looks!

After

I ended up finding a good website that says exactly what to do with perishable items after a power outage, and I ended up having to throw away all of the meats, eggs, dairy products, and the soft cheeses.  Everything else was fine, though, but it sure hurt throwing all of that food out.  I had just gone grocery shopping earlier in the week, so the fridge was fully stocked… that always seems to be the case when we have a power outage. 

We ended up making a Digiorno for dinner because all of our meat had to be thrown out, and the rest of the evening was spent playing out in the back yard.  Jacob was supposed to have had his last baseball game of the regular season that evening, but it was canceled because the fields were too wet. 

We also found out Thursday morning that a very special family friend of ours had passed away.  She was a prominent figure at our church and school, and she was my fifth grade teacher.  She was there for so long, that she was actually my mom’s fifth grade teacher as well, and she was also my aunt’s godmother.  She was an incredible woman – firm, but so kind and loving – and she had a heart of gold.  She was a stickler for impeccable grammar, and because of her, I can still rattle off the 30 most common prepositions in alphabetical order.  I also learned from her that a sentence should NEVER EVER end in a preposition even though, I do end with them occasionally if special emphasis is needed or if I want to sound more casual.  Don’t tell her, though.  ;o)  She was a true gem, and her legacy will live on through the thousands of students she educated in her 34 years of teaching + 12 years of subbing at our school.

Friday, October 30 (Day 231 of Quarantine)

A major cold front blew in overnight, and we woke up to temps in the 40’s Friday morning… finally!!  The kids were stoked because Friday was their Halloween celebration at school.  Typically, kids in Pre-K4 through second grade are the only ones who wear costumes and trick-or-treat room-to-room at school, but this year because of Covid, our school wanted to include everyone so they could all have some fun during this very strange year. 

All kids were allowed to go to school in costume, and instead of going from classroom to classroom to trick-or-treat, the juniors and seniors decorated their vehicles and they held a school-wide trunk-or-treat.  They all wore masks, of course, and the whole thing was outside to prevent the spread of germs indoors.  Jacob and Olivia both opted to wear their new costumes for this year, so Jacob went as Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon, and Olivia went as a witch.  Parents aren't allowed at the school at this time, so I was happy to get some pictures from Olivia's teacher!

I spent the whole day working in my office.  I had gotten ahead, and then did absolutely nothing for the blog on Thursday because of the hurricane, so I wanted to get caught back up to keep my momentum. 

I picked the kids up from school Friday afternoon, and then we spent the evening at home.  I went ahead and pulled out my artificial Christmas tree for my office and got it set up and fluffed up for the big day on Sunday (decorating November 1).  Lol. 

We picked up takeout from our favorite barbecue place, and then we all watched the new animated Addams Family movie.  I’ve never been a big fan of The Addams Family, so it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, but the kids enjoyed it.  I don’t think they really knew what to make of it since it’s so strange.  Haha.

After the kids went to bed, B and I watched the series finale of Schitt’s Creek and it was soooo good.  I was crying and laughing the whole way through.  I LOVED the entire series and I’m so glad that we decided to try it again after giving up on it the first time.  It’s definitely in my top ten of favorite TV shows of all-time!

After that was over, we watched the first episode of The Mandalorian, season two.  I’m not a Star Wars fan, but I’m a HUGE Baby Yoda fan (LOL) and there was tons of Baby Yoda goodness in that first episode of season two.  Haha.

On a completely unrelated note, we also found out Friday morning that my cousin’s wife and son both have Covid since they all live in the same house.  Somehow, my cousin’s daughter has managed to avoid it, so fingers crossed it stays that way.  That brings the family tally up to nine.  Yikes. 

And speaking of Covid, I don’t think I ever mentioned here on the blog that we did have our first case of Covid at the kids’ school.  It was identified the week that we got out early for fall break.  It was only one student and that student was in the high school, and fortunately, does not have younger siblings in the lower school.  It was caught early, all protocol was followed, and to our knowledge, it seemed to be an isolated case as nobody else ever got it that we know of.  Our nephew actually has a class with the kid who tested positive, but he quarantined and was tested a few days later and he was negative.  FACE MASKS ARE HELPING!!!!

That means that our entire lower school (infants – eighth grade) has made it 12 weeks with zero cases.  That is definitely something to celebrate!  Our school has been doing a fantastic job of keeping the kids safe and I pray it continues, especially since the weather has gotten colder and we’re nearing “sick season.”

Saturday, October 31 (Day 232 of Quarantine)

Saturday morning, we made pumpkin waffles again… we had to do it since it was Halloween!!  I spent the rest of the morning scrubbing the house down and getting it all ready for Christmas decorations to go up on Sunday and then we watched the Georgia vs. Kentucky game at noon.  I also braided Olivia’s wet hair after her shower so she’d have some good crimped hair for her witch costume later in the evening.

Saturday afternoon, I finally had a chance to pull out my new hair waver, and Y’ALL, oh my goodness I love it so much!  It is truly a miracle worker on my hair!  I have the finest, straightest hair of all-time and my hair never ever holds a curl or crimp or wave.  Well, I used this waver along with some texture spray, and I couldn’t believe how much I loved my hair.  It was fairly breezy all evening while we trick-or-treated, and my hair still looked amazing by the time I was ready for bed.  I’m going to have to start doing my hair like that more often.

Once I was all dressed up in my Halloween uniform – pumpkin sweatshirt, leggings, and boots – I headed downstairs to prepare a special Halloween dinner.  We had a themed dinner last year for the first time on Halloween and the kids have not stopped talking about it.  They were more excited for the dinner this year than trick-or-treating!

We had mummy dogs for the main course, and grapes, blackberries, ghost and bat chips, and Cheetos Bag O’ Bones for the sides.  B and I cracked open a couple of beers, and we turned on Halloween radio, and it was a super festive evening.

After dinner, the kids got dressed in their costumes, Olivia’s complete with makeup and crimped hair, and then we got ready to trick-or-treat at 6.  My father-in-law joined us, as he has pretty much every year in the past, and it was nice to have such a sense of normalcy.  My parents come every year, too, but this year they were in Huntsville staying with my brother and sister-in-law since my SIL just had surgery.

The weather was perfect Saturday evening – chilly, but not freezing – and people were out in full-force in our neighb!  As I said earlier in this post, everyone in the neighborhood set up tables on their front porches or in their driveways, and had candy arranged in individually wrapped bags so the kids could just grab one and go.  Nobody had to get close to anyone, and nobody had to stick their hands in a community candy bucket.  The majority of the people sitting out monitoring the candy tables had masks on, too, and so did the vast majority of the parents and trick-or-treaters. 

Needless to say, I was VERRRRY impressed and we felt totally safe the entire time.  As a matter of fact, this may have been our best Halloween yet!  I loved the tables in driveways thing, and I’m thinking we should just do that going forward!  Next year, I’ll have to do better with our table, though… looking back, I wish I would have decorated it a bit!

The kids got tons of candy – their buckets were filled to the brim – and we got back to our house around 7:15.  My father-in-law had stayed behind to monitor our candy table, and when we got back, he said we’d hardly had any trick-or-treaters.  So crazy considering how many were out on the front streets.  We live on a very small culdesac off of one of the main roads, so I think a lot of people just decided to stick to the main roads this year.

We stayed outside until almost 8, and we had quite a few trick-or-treaters come through, so we were able to get rid of most of our candy.  I had made up almost 100 treat bags and we had about 25 left over.  While we were hanging out outside, our kiddos went through their candy buckets and picked out what they wanted to eat, and then I took them inside and washed them (the wrappers) with soap in the sink (YES, I DID!  Haha.) and the kids washed their hands thoroughly, and then they were allowed to eat.  

By the time we got inside and got in PJs, it was after 8, so we all settled in for our annual viewing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and then we watched one of the other Charlie Brown shows that’s on that same DVD set.  The kids were beat by the time that was over so we put them to bed.  By the time I had tucked Jacob in, Olivia was already passed out in her bed.  Lol.  Brian said that as he was tucking her in, she was totally out of it and speaking all kinds of gibberish.  He said at one point, she said, “I deny rice.”  Lolololol.  What does that even mean?!

B and I spent the rest of the evening watching football, and I happily put on my Christmas PJ pants and grabbed a bowl of eggnog ice cream.  Yes ma’am!  Christmas season is officially here!!!!  Well, in my book, anyway.  Haha.

Sunday, November 1 (Day 233 of Quarantine)

Sunday morning, we got up at our usual time and then moved the clocks back so we could enjoy that extra hour during the day.  That meant I was downstairs making pumpkin cinnamon rolls by 7:45… usually we don’t eat breakfast until around 8:45 on the weekends.  We watched church and sorted/checked the kids’ candy, and then the kids watched some cartoons while I got the artificial trees set up and fluffed in their bedrooms. 

We did some homework, got Panera takeout for lunch, and then I spent the afternoon decorating my office tree.  The kids also did some Lego stop motion with Brian’s phone and played some video games.

Jacob had baseball practice and his end-of-season party at 4, so we didn’t get as much of the house decorated as we wanted to, but it’s only November 3 when you’re reading this, so we still have plenty of time.  ;o)

For Jacob’s practice/party, the boys started out with a little bit of 3-2-1 batting practice.  The two winners from that were captains and they got to pick teams for kickball.  Not only did the team and coaches play kickball, they included all of the parents and siblings, too!

Brian and Jacob ended up on one team, and Olivia and I were on the other, and we played six innings.  It was so much fun!  I was a little worried about mixing up with the other families, but everyone was pretty good at keeping their distance from each other, and we were outside, so that’s much safer than being inside, I suppose.

Brian and Jacob’s team ended up winning, and after the game was over, everyone headed to the bathrooms to wash their hands SUUUUPER good.  The coach’s wife had picked up pizzas and cupcakes for everyone, and each family had their own pizza so nobody had to swap germs.  In lieu of getting bakery cupcakes, they opted for Hostess cupcakes since they’re individually wrapped.  Making it work in these Covid times!!!!

After dinner, the coach held the trophy ceremony, and he also gave out an award to each of the players.  Jacob got the “Mr. Consistency Award.”  His coach said that with Jacob, you always know what you’re going to get… he’s always going to get a base hit, he’s going to make his defensive plays, and he’s always respectful.”  He also said a few other things that I wish I could remember, but his sweet speech made me swell with pride for our little Boo. 

This was Jacob’s coach’s last time coaching C-ball as his youngest moves up to B-ball in the spring, so he was pretty emotional.  His wife had framed a picture of the coach praying over our sweet babies before their very first game back in the spring (before Covid shut everything down), and had it matted so each of the boys could sign it… a sweet little memento from his last C-ball team ever.

It was nearly 7 by the time we finished with the awards, so it was dark because of the time change.  We headed home, Jacob Facetimed with my parents because they wanted to congratulate him, and then we got the kids in the bed.  B and I ended the evening catching up on Saturday Night Live, and that was a wrap on our week! 

Now for a few current things since I forgot to post them at the end of October…

Currently Reading

 

As I said last month, my reading mojo always ends with the summer, so this month, I just finished up Majesty and that was about it.  I did read another chapter of Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts but I’m still not really loving it. 

 

Currently Watching

 

We’ve been popping in and out of Dancing with the Stars, mostly to watch Nelly and AJ from Backstreet Boys.  We also finished Schitt’s Creek and I didn’t want it to end.  I love it SO MUCH. 

 

We also started watching The Bachelorette, Shark Tank, and The Mandalorian this month since new episodes have started, and we also watched the premiere of This is Us last week.  I’m so excited to have network television back again!  Speaking of which, have y’all been watching the new Supermarket Sweep?!  We’ve been watching that, too, and I love it.  Oh, and Saturday Night Live!!

 

While I work in my office, all of my 90’s romcoms have still been on repeat – Notting Hill, The Wedding Planner, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Father of the Bride 1 and 2, etc. 

 

And we also watched a couple of movies with the kids… we showed them The Addams Family and Casper (the 1995 version) and I LOVED reliving the whole thing again.  It was one of my favorite movies growing up and it gave me all the feels.  I wanted to be Kat so bad when I was 13… I thought her thumb ring was the coolest thing ever and also, she got to kiss Devon Sawa.  I mean!!!!

 

B and I also watched the new Adam Sandler Halloween movie, Hubie Halloween… hilarious if you love OG Adam Sandler, but if you don’t, you might just want to skip it. 

 

College football watching has been strong, too.  We can’t forget that!!!!

 

Currently Listening To

 

CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!!!  Don’t judge me.  I can’t help it that our local radio station started playing it before Halloween.  I mean, if it’s there, I’m not going to ignore it!  Haha.

Happy Tuesday!