Our Week - The One with Quarantine, Week 34 (Baseball Tournament and the Election)

Whew, what a week!  It was busy and a little bit stressful with that election dragging on for days.  Here’s the recap!

Monday, November 2 (Day 234 of Quarantine)

Monday morning, Olivia had her follow-up appointment with the orthopedist for her elbow bright and early.  She and I dropped Jacob at school right at 7:30 and headed straight to the doctor’s office at 7:45.  The doc did another exam, asked us a few questions, and then promptly cleared her to resume all activities!!  WOO HOO!  Thank you to all of you who have prayed for her these last couple of weeks… your prayers were heard and answered.  We were in and out of there in just 20 minutes, so she only ended up being about 15 minutes late for school… another success!

I headed straight to Publix afterward, because I had to replenish all of the refrigerator items we’d lost in the hurricane power outage the week prior to that.  Our school is also putting together bags for Thanksgiving to give to our outreach center, so I bought all of the items to fill our two bags, and they will be turned in to help families in need for the holidays. 

The rest of the day was spent working, and then I grabbed the kids from school at 3.  We had nowhere to be Monday evening, so I made sausage, peppers, and onions tacos and B and I decided to go all out and have some margs, too. 

After dinner, the kids and I went back upstairs and spent the rest of the evening decorating the Christmas trees in their rooms.  They have SO many handmade ornaments that they’ve made throughout the years, so we started putting those on the trees in their bedrooms last year to relieve some of the heaviness from the main tree in our living room.  It was bursting at the seams prior to that, and we couldn’t fit all of the ornaments on the tree!

I know I mentioned in my weekly recap post last week that my cousin, his wife, and his son and daughter all got Covid… well, my cousin started having a really rough go with his on Monday and he ended up going to the emergency room because he was having difficulty breathing.  He’s been an EMT/nurse for the last 25ish years and he’s a really tough guy, so if he went to the ER then you know it must have been really bad.  Sure enough, he found out that he has pneumonia in both lungs, so he was admitted to the Covid floor at our local hospital.  Please, please continue to pray for him and the rest of his family who are also suffering from Covid.

Tuesday, November 3 (Day 235 of Quarantine)

Tuesday morning, I did a cardio workout inside because it was 38 degrees and WAY too cold to run.  The rest of the day was spent working until I had to pick the kids up from school.

Jacob’s baseball tournament started Tuesday evening, and unfortunately, we lost.  The team we played is by far the best in the league, and in addition to that, our boys didn’t bring their A-game.  Jacob struck out twice – that never happens – and then his hard line-drive went straight to the short-stop’s glove and he caught it.  Jacob did finally get a single for his last at-bat, and he scored a run that time, too, but sadly we ended up losing 18-10.  The tournament was single elimination, so our Boo has officially played his last game of c-ball ever.  He was pretty bummed about losing, and even more bummed that baseball is over, but we’re grateful that he was even able to play at all this year. 

Tuesday was also, of course, Election Day, so B and I ended up staying up until 11:30 waiting to see what was going to happen.  Once ballot reporting started to slow down, we knew it was going to be a long time, so we called it a night.  This was the screen I stared at all week.  Lol.

Also, on Tuesday (I think?) my cousin’s daughter, who also has Covid, was taken to the ER because she was having trouble breathing.  She’s only 18 years old, so Covid can definitely be scary for the younger crowd, too.

Wednesday, November 4 (Day 236 of Quarantine)

Wednesday morning, I ended up waking up an entire hour early because I just couldn’t sleep.  I spent the day working and popping in to check election coverage here and there, but I didn’t spend every second obsessing over it.  My anxiety was running pretty high, and letting myself get completely absorbed in it wouldn’t have helped one bit.

Olivia had dance Wednesday afternoon, and I spent that time catching up on emails, listening to music that makes me happy, and letting myself just be. 

It’s always too late to cook anything too involved after dance, so Olivia and I picked up Bojangles for dinner on the way home as it’s right on our route.  We hadn’t had it in probably over a year, and it was such a yummy treat!  For those of you who don’t know what Bojangles is, it’s kind of like a Popeyes, but better.  They make all of their biscuits from scratch and they are amazing. 

The rest of the evening was spent prepping for Thursday, reading with Olivia, and watching some TV with B.

Thursday, November 5 (Day 237 of Quarantine)

Thursday morning, we woke up to… still not having a new president.  Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Arizona (all swing states) were still tallying votes.  So many mail-in ballots this year (because – Covid) has made it a tough year for tallying.  But every vote deserves to be counted, and so we all continued to wait.

I headed out to pick up the kids from school at 2:30 as I always do, and when I pulled up in the car line, I knew immediately something was wrong because out on the main street there were police and sheriff cars everywhere.  Sure enough, within seconds, my mom and Brian both called me, and the school sent out their phone call/text message/email blast saying that the school was on lockdown.  My mom told me that there was an armed suspect on campus, and they were trying to find him or her. 

Naturally, I got incredibly anxious and I wasn’t really sure what to do about being in the car line.  My mom wanted to me to leave and go straight to my Mama Cass’s house, since she lives just a couple of minutes from the school, but the car line was already packed and there wasn’t an easy way out.

Fortunately, the lockdown only lasted a few more minutes and then the school was able to lift it.  I don’t have many details about what happened, but it sounds like some random suspect must have been passing through the area… the suspect was not specifically seeking out our school or anything, thank God.

When the kids got in the car, Jacob was as cool and calm as can be, but Olivia was crying.  The whole thing had freaked her out, and I just DESPISE the fact that we live in a world where my kids can’t always feel safe at school.  I’m so very grateful that our school has such stringent lockdown procedures, and I’m even more grateful that our school has an armed guard/guards on campus at all times. 

Olivia and I had a long chat on the way home, and I was able to ease her fears, and she had made a full recovery by the time we arrived at home.  I, on the other hand, was still quite shaken up.

We spent the rest of the evening indulging in a glass of wine (B and me), putting up the Christmas decorations on the mantle, and watching Donald Trump’s very odd address to the nation.

Friday, November 6 (Day 238 of Quarantine)

Friday was another workday for me, and then I grabbed the kids from school, and we stopped by Michael’s on the way home to pick up the Christmas tree I had ordered earlier in the day.  They had them marked down for Black Friday prices this weekend!!

When we got home, the kids and I spent the afternoon decorating the new tree in our master bedroom while B wrapped up his workday.  The tree we had been using in our bedroom was 11 years old and on its last leg, so it was long overdue to be replaced.  I’m loving that skinny tree in its place… it fits in that space so much better!

B picked up Five Guys for dinner, and we whipped up a batch of Moscow Mules, and then we spent the evening watching Home Alone 2… our first Christmas movie of the season.  B had to work on and off Friday evening as his project at work just entered a crucial time, so he popped in and out as he could.  I fell straight to sleep.  Hahahaha.  This time change has made me so tired this week!  Still loving that feeling of sleeping later in the morning, though!     

Saturday, November 7 (Day 239 of Quarantine)

Saturday morning, I made some pumpkin pancakes that I had gotten at Trader Joe’s and the kids were ecstatic.  They’ve been begging me to make pancakes forever and they were thrilled their day had finally come.  I hadn’t made pancakes in years, and I enjoyed them, too.  I guess I’ll have to start throwing those in the rotation more often!

After breakfast was cleaned up, I did a 30-minute cardio workout, and then I got to work on the Christmas decorating.  We had already gotten the trees up in my office and all of the bedrooms, but I had some tweaking to do on each of them, plus, I wanted to decorate our entire downstairs area. 

We got the news late Saturday morning that a winner had finally been declared in the Presidential Election, and I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.  This election is the most stressful one I’ve lived through so far, and this past week was just crazy, since it was so close.  I was happy to hear the winner had been declared, so we can all move on with our lives!

I ended up decorating the house all day, only breaking for lunch and a quick shower, and I ended up getting every single thing done that I can do right now!  All that’s left to do now is decorate the big tree in our living room when we get it the day after Thanksgiving, and then put up the outdoor decorations when the time is more appropriate.  Lol.  I know our neighbors are probably not ready to be seeing Christmas decorations just yet… or maybe they are?  It is 2020, after all.  Haha.

We watched the Georgia vs. Florida game at 3:30 and we ended up losing.  It was a heartbreaker of a game, too… SO many injuries, including our quarterback’s throwing shoulder.  Sigh.  That was likely the nail in the coffin for us advancing to the conference championship game as we will have to win out and Florida will have to lose two more games for that to happen.  It is 2020, after all, though, so I didn’t have high hopes for this season anyway.

At 8, we sat down with the kids and watched Kamala Harris and Joe Biden address the nation and formally accept their positions as Vice President and President, respectively.  It was a monumental day for women, minority women especially, as she will be the first woman Vice President of the United States ever.  I’m praying that these two make excellent decisions on behalf of our country and that they end up representing us well.

Once that was over, the kids went to bed, and B and I stayed up for a bit longer, watching Notre Dame beat Clemson.  

Sunday, November 8 (Day 240 of Quarantine)

Sunday morning was church and cinnamon rolls followed by homework, meal planning, and planning the week ahead.  The kids watched some TV after their homework was done, and I tidied up after having 8 billion fall and Christmas boxes out Saturday.  We had a quick lunch at home, and then afterward, we went for a walk around our neighborhood.  We’re supposed to have a lot of rain this week from – get this – another hurricane (eye roll), so we wanted to get them outside before we’re stuck inside all week.

We walked to our neighborhood playground, let the kids play for a long time, and then we walked back home.  The playground area is pretty large, so B and I are able to walk a big circle around it while they play, and that’s so nice!

When we got back home, B and the kids played video games for a bit while I got some work done, and then we finished the day with a charcuterie board, wine, a game of Headbanz, a dance party, and some downtime in front of the TV.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!