Daddy's back, Funny Guy & End to BBall season

 It was a long week! But I managed all the single parenting. Rob went on a business trip to Jacksonville florida. This is the first business trip he has been on since covid began. He was happy to be able to get out of the house and meet co-workers he's never met. In the meantime, I handled the homefront. Things were still a little sketchy at home due to the turbulence of the last month. I managed the kids fine. It was nice that Tuesday was an ice day and school was cancelled.  The kids baked lots of yummies and Talia had a friend over.

Kylan and I celebrated the return of daddy by continuing our chicken sandwich competition. We had Chick-fil-A versus Burger King's Chic-king. Chick-fil-A was much better. Burger King's meat was chewy. It was a little dicey. And it was more expensive than Chick-fil-A! Kylan and I have been having this chicken sandwich competition over the last several months. We're determined to find the best chicken sandwich. So far Hardee's chicken sandwich is the best. That has surprised us both.

Saturday morning, we got up early for Talia's last basketball game. We were excited to see her do awesome. However, a mom came in right before the game and shared that her daughter just tested positive. She had her daughter tested on Thursday right before practice. And she let her go to practice anyways. She got the results this morning and found out her daughter had tested positive for covid. This meant our team now had to quarantine because she let her daughter practice. Which then meant the last game was canceled. Tally was pretty bummed. Thankfully her friend/teammate, Maya, invited her over for a playdate.  Saturday then became a lazy day for us which was really nice.

I saw that Sal Vulcano was at the Barrymore performing on Saturday night, so I checked to see if there were still tickets and there was! Rob and I bought some tickets and decided to have an evening out. It was a nice time and Sal was pretty funny.  It has been a long time since we've been to a show. It was also nice that we went out for drinks prior. I find it really funny that Rob, the blonde, bought blonde drinks and I, the dark haired girl, bought dark drinks.  

Sunday, we ended up getting distracted by lots of things and did not make it out for a hike. Rob and I took a nice long walk in the neighborhood. We are gearing up for the upcoming week knowing that we have lots that will be keeping us busy.  

Anything to note was... At church I met another kylan! On new mother and her son came in and I greeted them. She told me her son's name was kylan. I was astounded! Spelled the same and everything. She said her mother had suggested the name and that it sounded nice. Her six year old boy was quite a cutie! I was excited to have Kylan meet him

Babies, bball & glaciers

 

What a busy Saturday! Talia had a basketball game in the morning. Since it was the last game of the morning they decided to make it a full court game. The other team did not have very many players show. This gave Talia's team an advantage. She didn't get as much playing time since they had to do 3v3, she still played well and scored several baskets. 

After her game, I went to go see one of my students wrestle. He was in sectionals. Seeing the smile on his face when I showed up was worth it all. I have really enjoyed watching him learn and grow in the sport. And I had no idea that wrestling was so complicated. I definitely have way more respect for the sport and anyone who does it. Unfortunately, his match did not go so well and he ended up injured. Still was worth it to watch him do something he loves. 

After that Rob and I took Alaina out for a special lunch. She received straight A's on her report card and we wanted to reward her for that. We let her pick any restaurant and she picked cheesecake factory. It's a long drive but it is good food. When we got there at 2:00 they told us it would be a 45 minute wait. That was crazy! Thankfully we were able to get a seat in the bar and get served a little quicker. It was yummy food. 

We brought cheesecake home for Ky and Talia to enjoy and had a nice snack as a family. That evening Rob and I went out for a short date. I had the worst old fashioned ever at Old sugar distillery. That was very disappointing since I've always loved Old sugar distillery. On our mini date We out we figured out our Airbnb for our next trip which will be to Washington DC. This was not on our bucket list of trips. Since we had to cancel our skiing trip after the death of Alex, we decided we wanted to do something special with the kids and get out of the state. We still had a flight credit and with our ski trip canceled, we are actually paying not very much to go to DC. We still have to figure out what all we're doing there, but we do have an Airbnb for now and we can start planning that out.

That night our new niece was born. Charlotte Marie made her entrance into the world. The next day Rob and I did some hiking along the Lakeshore. If you don't understand glaciers, looking at the lake really explains how glaciers are formed and how they move. It was pretty cool. And it was 50°! What a fabulous day. I can't wait until spring!

V-Day

 

Valentine's Day was a very nice day. It was nice after a rough weekend. I had two students actually bring me Valentine's gifts which was surprising. That was a first. The kids received lots of great Valentine's gifts from their grandparents. And talia's school had a candlelight walk which we enjoyed. I also came home to flowers that Rob had bought me. It was a very nice day. Especially since Valentine's Day isn't really a day we celebrate.  Every day should be Valentine's Day.  

Side note.. this was the last time I bought Valentines for kids. This is Talia's 5th grade valentine, so last year for cards. When I went to Target the shelves were empty.  She had to have cards for her last elementary Valentine's day. Thankfully we found some that somebody must have discarded in a different area of the store, so it all worked out.

Hoops, Friends & Funerals

 It was a very long saturday. It began with talia's basketball game at 8:00 a.m. . She played excellent. It's finally good to see her getting back to her old self with sports. She scored at least seven of the baskets for her team and they almost won for the first time.  I say almost because it was literally two points! Talia finally figured out how to position herself for rebounds and then to be more aggressive and get the ball. After that I took Talia out for a drink at Mercies coffee. We hadn't been there before. I always liked it as cool beans. This new place does not match cool beans, but it does have a good mission. With the loss of Alex it has been all the more important to spend time with the kids. So it was nice that Talia and I had this time to relax and have coffee/ hot chocolate before Alex's funeral.

When I got home it was time to get ready for the funeral. Ky wore some of dad's clothes because he wanted dark clothes. It's the first time he can wear and fit in his dad's clothes. This should be a joyful occasion as I remember putting him in Rob's shorts when he was a newborn, but it was sad. The funeral was hard. Alex's dad delivered a great eulogy, but the energy just did not match Alex's personality. It was also very hard to see Alex. It was an open casket funeral and it didn't look like him.  Ky and many of the kids struggled with this.  He went with his friends to the celebration ceremony afterwards. Rob and I dropped them off and had coffee nearby. I don't think I've ever had so much coffee in a day! 

That took up most of our day. I was exhausted. I took a very very brief nap before we headed out for our church Valentine's evening. We had signed up for it before knowing when Alex's funeral was. That was a nice time it was an opportunity to chat with other couples and get to know people better in the church. We played Family feud which was amusing. As much as I just wanted to go to bed that night, I needed that. I'm glad we went.

When we came home Ky was struggling. He wanted to go hang out with his friends, but it was already after 9:00 and we just needed to settle down for the evening.  Grief is such a long process. 

We were able to end the evening with some fun by playing Jeopardy. Rob won after claiming his controller wasn't working ( Rolling the eyes) 

It's Sunday morning as I'm putting this blog together. I'm exhausted. Weekends should be a time for relaxation and rejuvenation. Lately they just seem like a drain.  I'm not looking forward to the upcoming work week.  

A case of the Mondays

 Well time does heal, but it was a hard Monday. I planned to take Ky out after school to help him get focused and caught up on some school work. He wasn't so focused. Neither was I. But he was quite hungry since it was hamburger day at school and Alex always ate his hamburgers. Kylan hates hamburgers.  He would trade for Alex's tater tots.  As you can quite imagine, he didn't eat much of anything.

We went to Monty's Blue plate and he had a nice big chicken sandwich. I noticed how swollen and purple his finger was so we went to the doctor afterwards to get x-rays.  I wanted to make sure it wasn't broke. Ky did not want to go and insisted it was jammed. I had to make sure I did the right thing as a parent this time so I took him anyway. The doc said I did a good job. He was told to put on a splint and wear it until we got results from the x-rays back. We later discovered it was just severely jammed.

Ice Age Trail: Lodi Marsh Segment

 

We aimed for 8 miles, but got to 7.  Almost got the car stuck in the slippery parking lot as well.  It was a beautiful hike with temps in the low 30s.  I'm looking forward to returning in the summer.

Basketball and ice cream for breakfast

Of course we celebrated national ice cream for breakfast day! Talia had a basketball game in the morning which made it difficult to celebrate right away, so we decided to make it a national ice cream for brunch day instead. And since we couldn't make waffles, Rob picked up donuts to make the meal even sweeter. Talia did amazing and basketball. She's been hesitant, but today she really pulled through and became much more aggressive. She made her first basket of the season and a game. She also fought for the ball numerous times grabbed rebounds and passed to have several assists for the game. After a sweet brunch Kylan went to Open soccer with friends and Lucy and I enjoyed a sunset stroll at the dog park. Today was a long day for me. The stress of this past week hit hard. Healing takes time, we will all get there soon enough.