Quarnatine - Week 8

Here we are, still chugging along in this new, unpredictable world of ours. Restrictions have eased up a little over the last 2 weeks. But life still doesn't look much different for us. It's business as usual around here. The kids do see their friends more often, but that's the only change.

Because the weather has decided to be more spring-like, Spring Fever has set in. We were in the mood to work outside and do projects. Chuck had spent last fall building these corn-hole boards. This past week seemed like the perfect time to finally finish them up.

We needed a lot of supplies in order to do all our projects. So Chuck, along with the entire population of Fort Collins, braved our local Lowe's. He said it was extremely hard to social distance. However, everyone did wear masks. So, I guess that's good. We're still learning what staying safe in the midst of a pandemic looks like. We can't hide in our houses forever, but we also don't want to unnecessarily put others or ourselves at risk. Apparently, nobody knows the answer to that question. Testing and tracking the entire population sure would help. But our government has chosen not to anything instead. So it seems like we're on our own. End of rant...now we can finish the story....

So this turned out to be the finished product. Pretty impressive, I think. Bennett and Chuck worked hard taping and measuring so everything would turn out to look this awesome. It was hard for the math challenged in this family. But we persevered.

Chloe and I re-stained the privacy dividers on our deck. All while the neighbor's yappy, idiot dog barked at us non-stop. It drove me to need a large bowl of ice cream.

I spent the rest of the afternoon crouched in this position planting pansies. It just feels good to work hard, get dirt under your nails, sweat, and accomplish something that in the end looks beautiful.

Since Graduation has been cancelled, the school organized a "drive-thru" graduation. It was actually more of a car parade of seniors picking up their caps and gowns. All the teachers and staff were stationed throughout the parking lot cheering, holding signs, and celebrating the class of 2020. It was a thoughtful and kind effort to try and help make this occasion memorable and special for the kids even though they won't get to walk across a stage. 

This is the principal. She talked to each and every senior. She's so involved in the kids' lives. She is an amazing principal. I so appreciate her.

At the end of the drive-through graduation, the kids were supposed to put on their cap and gowns and take a picture next to the mascot at the front of the school. This picture captures the moment Chuck was able to "help" Bennett orient his cap correctly. See, even seniors still need their parents.

Another teacher that Bennett really liked asked to take a selfie with him and gave him a very kind note telling him how much having Bennett in his class last year meant to him. He also gave him a copy of the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. My all time favorite poem.

We were forced to play Quiddler again most of this week. Chuck insisted on playing until he won. It was hard. Very hard.

Then we rediscovered "Heads Up" on our phone. This is similar to Taboo, but with less word restrictions. This was dinner and game night the other night. So much fun!

We watched the INCREDIBLE documentary of Michelle Obama. She is so inspirational. I read her book last year and knew of her huge heart, sharp mind, and giving spirit already. This was just as enjoyable as the book and filmed so well.

We also watched the heart-breaking movie, "Just Mercy." Chuck and I had already seen it and wanted the kids to watch it. You can't and shouldn't be the same after watching this movie. I have been a huge fan of Bryan Stevenson since 2014 when I first read his book with the same title. We've supported his organization, Equal Justice Initiative, ever since then. You can't watch this movie and not change your opinion of our "justice" system and the death penalty. Deep, heavy, and moving.

We ate a week of declicous food! I must say, it was wonderful. And we followed it to a tee up until Friday, then we veered way off course. But it's all good.

One night, Chloe wanted to drive us somewhere. So we ended up at the high school. We took these wonderful pictures in memory of their last year of high school together.

And we practiced taking a picture by the mascot so that Bennett would be better prepared for drive-thru graduation.

If You Were A Disney Character Who Would You Be?

This is what quarantine has done to our conversation. These are the last dregs of conversation in our house. We actually sit around talking about this stuff with all seriousness. And some of us can't just commit to one character. We feel we are more complex than that and can't be limited or defined by just one persona. An astute Disney connoisseur would recognize the fact that all of these characters don't technically fall under the "Disney" umbrella. But it made for a nice title, so I'm sticking with it. I will leave you in suspense no longer:

Chuck probably asks once every few weeks if we can watch this movie. Again. For the 284th time. It never gets old. He still laughs hysterically. And all because of his favorite character: Megamind. In his words, " I just love the story of the bad guy/criminal turning into the good guy. And his penchant for style and presentation." There you have it. I don't think Chuck has ever been a "bad guy" per se. But he does relate to Megamind's 'penchant for style and presentation.'

Chuck feels that Donald Duck is another accurate representation of who he is. He feels that, "he is so persistent … but also very narrow-focused … its just funny to see him trying to figure something out (like a flat tire) and then having everything conspire against him and seeing him just utterly meltdown but also not give up." Yup, that's my husband. And I love that about him!

Who doesn't love Kronk in "The Emperor's New Groove?" Gavin finds him hysterical. He feels that he plays the dumb henchman role perfectly. *Side note: Gavin has never been nor is currently employed as a dumb henchman. He also appreciates the genius of the voice actor. I don't know exactly how this represents Gavin except for maybe his silly side.

Gavin's other favorite character comes from the same movie. He loves Pacha because he is "just a really nice and selfless guy." This is a much closer representation of who Gavin is, always looking for a way to help everybody, smart but not showing it off, can think of solutions to complex problems, and loyal.

 

Emmett is truly the best representation of Bennett. Even their names are similar. Emmett is famous for saying, "Just tell me exactly what to do and how to do it." And oddly enough, Bennett is famous for saying the same thing. Emmett is a happy, go-lucky, friendly guy. So is Bennett. Bennett says he likes him because, "he’s funnily naive and dumb." Everybody loves Emmett. Everybody loves Bennett.

Talk about being complex. Bennett also associates himself with Maui from "Muana." Of course he does. We all knew that's what he would say before we asked him. He also says, "he is funnily self-centered and he’s just awesome overall." And to think I thought it was the muscles and tattoos.

 

Apparently Chloe isn't as complex as the rest of us tortured souls. She picked Rapunzel from, “Tangled” and that is it. Not only is there the strong physical resemblance but she says, "she’s caring and loyal but is also searching for something missing in her life." So well put, Chloe. That sums up Chloe in a nutshell. Plus, Chloe likes to stand up for herself and is highly independent, just like Rapunzel.

I see myself a lot like Ariel from "The Little Mermaid." Not that I like to swim or that I used to be a mermaid. But I identify with her idealism, with her naivety about the goodness of the world around her, how she wants to experience new and different things, about wanting to be liked and fit in. However, I have not sold my soul to Ursula to achieve any of these things. Plus, I love to sing (out loud, in my car, music blaring, with no one listening).

Lastly, anyone who knows me would agree. I am Dory. Dory is me. It helps that our names are so similar. I have the worst short term memory. So does Dory. I love to help people - even if they don't necessarily want my help. So does Dory. I love meeting new people. So does Dory (in her case fish).

And there you have it. Now you probably know us better than you ever really wanted to. Thank you, Quarantine, for giving us this little experiment in self-revelation and transparency.

Quarantine - Week 7

Is it weird to say that we've gotten used to this now? It feels weird to be around people again. This past week, the Stay At Home order was lifted and changed to Safer at Home as the state tries to gingerly wade back into some sense of "normalcy" (whatever that's going to look like now). For 6 weeks we stayed completely away from everyone.

I was the lone tribute who went to the grocery store once a week with my mask on (I gave up on the grocery pick up service after week 4 since they never had everything on my list). And that was it. That was the extent of our contact with the outside. Minus a random day or two within the past 2 weeks when Chloe and her friend would go for a social distance walk around the neighborhood. Taking Ninja for a walk around the neighborhood became exciting because you could wave to other people and say "hi" across the street. It was a nice change of scenery.

But now the restrictions have been lifted to some extent (I honestly don't know why because our death/infection numbers are not going down yet). For us this looked like letting the kids get together with a friend/s who has also been seriously quarantining for the past 6 weeks. This is almost like the worst grounding they ever had, they were in desperate need of being with their friends.

Chloe and Brooke went to see their friend Maggie. This is the same girl we did the drive by birthday wishes for a couple of weeks ago. All of us moms were like, "I think it's ok? Y'all have been super careful and so have we. So let's try this and see what happens?" Integrating again feels weird. But we have to start some time. The kids just stayed at her house and took a walk around the lake behind it. Not a lot of risk involved - except for being around people outside your house again for the first time in 7 weeks. We agreed to let the kids get together once and then give it a week to make sure everyone is still healthy. 

 

Bennett is a doer. He doesn't like just sitting around talking. He wants to play or do something. So when his friend Brooke (yes, both Chloe and Bennett have a Brooke of their own) asked if he wanted to hike Horsetooth with her, he was desperate to go. He had 7 weeks worth of energy stored up for just such an event. Plus, you don't come into contact with hardly anyone else hiking. And her family had also been very strict with the quarantine so we felt we had to let him go before he slowly wilted to death inside. As you can see from the picture, the outdoors and time with Brooke filled him up again. The kid hasn't seen the inside of a gym, a basketball hoop, or a tennis court for 7 weeks, he needed this. Obviously, they weren't social distancing (or wearing masks), but they did keep their distance from any other hikers they encountered.

Because the weather was so incredibly gorgeous this week. The kids and I ventured to a park in Fort Collins so we could find some trees to hang our hammocks on. It was heavenly.

 

And because Chuck was at work on our first foray into the world again and had FOMO of hammocking, we went again on Friday afternoon so he, too, could hammock in this most blissful and peaceful setting. As you can tell from the photo, I'm still working my way through A People's History of the United States. It's a very long book, but well worth the read.

The most wonderful thing happened this week...Spring! I'm so happy to see my lilacs about to bloom. They are on the cusp of releasing the most wonderful fragrance ever. You might just find me sitting by my bushes over the next few weeks inhaling as much of this delightful scent as possible.

 

This is what work has looked like for me over the past 7 weeks. Each teacher set up their own Google Classroom and we interact with out students over this platform. It is quite challenging given the level of digital literacy of some of our students. But the students who have continued to be committed to class have been enjoyable to engage with over these past few weeks.

 And Chuck has been having fun at work creating confusing background screens for his zoom meetings.

 

Bennett and Chuck wasted lots of perfectly good time working on this. More power to them. This is my personal nightmare.

 

The games that have been keeping us entertained this week are Quiddler 

and ping pong. I have to say that Bennett and I are the better team here. But often Chuck and I beat Chloe and Bennett when we team up and it just feels good to beat your kids at something, you know? 

Of course we have been watching this incredible documentary as has the rest of the world. This was the golden age of basketball. This is my all time favorite team.

 

Watching highlight reels of these two puts a gigantic smile on my face. This group of guys was the ultimate in teamwork. There was no such thing as "hero ball." Everyone knew Michael was the GOAT, but he let his teammates shine and do what they do best. That was the genius of Coach Phil Jackson. It is a fun walk down memory lane and fun to share with the kids and indoctrinate them on why the 97/98 Bulls were the best team ever.

I can't even tell you what this music does to me. I get the goosebumps everytime I hear it. We loved it so much that this was the music that the DJ played at our wedding when our wedding party was introduced at our reception. I told you we were die-hard fans!

 

We also introduced the kids one of our favorite movies, The Great Debaters.  I've mentioned multiple times on this blog that this is where we got the best parenting advice about "do what you have to do before you do what you want to do." But after watching it again last night, I'd have to say this was my favorite quote this time: "St. Augustine said, 'An unjust law is not law at all.' which means I have the right, even the duty to resist. With violence or civil disobedience. You should pray I choose the latter."

We ate food again. Barely. We totally didn't follow this menu. We maybe ate 3 of the things. We opted for cheese and crackers one night, left overs another and who knows what else. By the way, I can never cancel pizza night - I would have a mutiny on my hands. But I have been informed I can postpone it. So that's a relief. Pizza was postponed until Sunday.

I just love this photo! We were all having a group hug moment when Ninja decided to participate and join our circle of love. 

Fam Prom 2020

 

Our goal with Fam Prom was not to replace Prom, because that experience is irreplaceable, but to give him happy memories associated with Prom, even if those memories involved dancing with his crazy family. If nothing else, it was fun to dress up.

 

Since most restaurants are open for pick-up still, we decided to order from our favorite Mexican restaurant for this special night. Thank you Blue Agave for giving us plenty of energy to dance like it's 1999.

 And it wouldn't be Prom without a punch bowl and small desserts. 

 

I think that might have been Bennett's favorite part of the night.

  

 Of course we got plenty of snarky looks. This is where the "cool kids" hung out. Notice the absence of Chuck and I. 

 

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but we have zero clue how to dance. We have no rhythm, no bounce (which we just learned from our tutorial was super important), no natural sense of what "cool" looks like while your dancing, no beat, no idea what to do with our hands while our feet move, no nothing. And since Prom is mostly about dancing (as well as the punch bowl) we decided that we would watch these terrific dance tutorials on YouTube and then incorporate them into the playlist that Chloe and Bennett worked hard to agree upon. You guys!! This guy was awesome! He's a great teacher. Granted, the only thing I can do when I dance is count, but I feel we learned some smooth moves and are in a better position not to embarrass ourselves. 

This is WITH the tutorial.

Even Bennett and Chloe danced together for 7 whole seconds.

I took a picture in case the video went by too fast for you.

Of course, Bennett had some dance moves up his sleeve that were were unaware of.

He was full of surprises.

Chloe and I closed the place down with our final dance that was nothing we learned on our tutorial. We were free-styling it at this point. We found our rhythm.

This looks like a happy Prom boy with old, crazy parents. 

We ended the night watching "Hitch." This was this exact scene we had in mind when we were doing our dance tutorials. Some people are blessed with natural dance moves. Others of us are not.