October 2020 in Review

I made a mistake and didn’t start writing out this month in review in advance, admittedly part of the problem was the way our month was broken up, which really threw me. So, let’s see how this month of 10th grade went.

 

Week 1/2

I said this was a weird month.

I’d seen news reports of a Dr Pepper shortage,but it hadn’t hit my local HEBs until that first week. That great big empty space is the empty spot where my Dr Pepper should be. It was very sad, no matter what my kids tell you, it was very sad.

Leezard figured out how to get up on the counter and happily ate the butter that was out on the counter for random use. Then the picture right next to it, is a random piece of rubber (I think) that I had to pull out of her mouth as she ran like a crazy dog around the local school playground. And that final picture of Leezard is her peeking in the window from the backyard to see if she’s finally allowed back in now.

She wasn’t.

That middle picture greatly amused me as Corona beer told me to make sure I stayed socially distant to stay safe from Coronavirus. It made me laugh and I had to share it with everyone.

That giant mob of people is a picture from the battle scenario Superman created for his “hands-on project” for the American Revolution.

That final picture of a person is Batman driving for the first time on I-35, which is a big deal because that road is crazy scary to drive sometimes.

And the two memes made me smile, or in the case of that blue one, made me think.

Galveston!

Jeff needed out of the house, desperately, and spent much of the summer looking around trying to find places where we could go that wouldn’t be closed whenever we went there, and finally we rented a house down in Galveston for a week.

Leezard was a lot of fun to watch in the ocean. She loved it, but the ocean did not love her, and so each time she was in the ocean she ended up throwing up.

A LOT.

So, we had to carefully watch her when we went down to the ocean. The kids had lots of fun playing in the water and building sandcastles.

We alternated between a day at the house, and a day out and about. So, the bottom half are pictures of our mini-golf excursion, and then a visit to the Moody Mansion in central Galveston.

The bottom corner is a picture of the very cool map I made for the gaming campaign I ran, which we still need to finish off, but everyone enjoyed the campaign, and I had to laugh because they solved all of their problems in a way completely different from how I expected.

One of my favorite things about visiting Moody Mansionwere all of the “Do not touch” signs. Whoever was in charge of their social media and interactions has a great sense of humor. I laughed at every single one of them, and took pictures. It was brilliant.

Interesting, the pictures on here are all out of order. So starting with the lower left hand corner.

That is the picture of the normally completely dry path to the beach. We were in Galveston when Tropical Storm Delta came through. It was kind of amazing to see how the wind and the rain whipped through the island. We only caught the tail end of it, and it wasn’t huge, but they were kind of scary sometimes.

I found a Civil War card game, whose name is currently escaping me, that was an interesting variation on a trick-taking game, and I played it with Jeff and the boys and did horrible at it. I think I’ll do better the next time we play.

We like to give Leezard empty bottles to use as a chew toy. She chases them around the house and slowly chews them into a little bitty pieces of plastic that fits much better into our recycling bin. In this picture she’s trying her best to lick the remains of the apple juice out of the container.

Right underneath it is a picture I drew 19 years ago when I taught 1st grade as part of a Me on the Map unit, I’m trying to decide what I should do with it.

And all the rest of the pictures were from our trip down to the Strand in Galveston as we wandered around. Which reminds me I still have some candy from that trip, I need to eat…

Week 2.5 or something, I don’t know

The new youth pastor gave all the volunteers a gift card to Starbucks to take their small groups out. I took my girls out, but didn’t get any pictures, so I drew a quick sketch, of middling quality to commemorate it.

It continues to amuse me when Leezard peeks into windows, so I have to restrain myself not to take pictures every time.

But really this week was taken up with Halloween costumes, specifically Princess’ costume. She’s going to be Angelica Schyler for Halloween, so I set her to drawing and tracing the pattern as I figured out what modifications I would need to make. At one point I turned around to have her try something on and she wasn’t there. I texted her this nice obnoxious picture of the empty spot she was supposed to be in, and she walked over with a laugh in her smile.

And probably a return sarcastic comment.

The giant dog doesn’t understand she’s too big to not sit on people.

The almost bottom right picture is Superman’s costume started. It’s now done, but it’s been a busy week.

And the final picture is from me sitting at the hospital. Jeff had neck surgery on Wednesday and what we’d been told was an outpatient surgery was actually overnight, and thankfully I was able to stay with him in his room to call for nurses and generally help him with stuff.

Week 4, this is definitely week 4

Recovering from the surgery has been a lot more than we first expected. It was a good thing we had friends bringing meals the first couple of days, and those meals stretched out into four or five days worth of meals, which was very helpful. Of course, this was the one weekend where everything was schedule and most were things we couldn’t reschedule because it was out of our control. So I dropped Princess off with a friend to be driven off to the campout. Saturday I took Batman with me for Leezard’s obedience class, and then picked Princess up from her campout. Sunday was the delicate day of balance, as she had a Trunk or Treat event she was volunteering at, then the kids all had youth group (I was staying home to keep Jeff company).

This past week has taught me how much of a blessing having two people who can drive is.

Seriously, it’s been a lot of balancing with this.

As to the rest of the week… Or maybe week and a half.

We FINALLY watched the Scarlet Pimpernel, and I loved the movie, it didn’t follow the book super well, but it followed the idea of the book. I also tortured the kids and made them watch an episode of the brief Bunnicula TV series since it was free on Prime. The kids screamed in pain and horror appropriately for me.

I spent most of the last two weeks putting together a vast number of Halloween costumes. the hardest two was Princess’ Angelica Schyler costume and my Pegg costume. I’m still not happy with my costume, but I got it done to be able to wear it.

I’m much happier with Batman’s vest for Greymane, and Superman’s coat for a general plague doctor, and just because he wanted a coat like Batman had.

There is more going on I’m sure, but my brain is fried and I’m about to embark on the grading that I’ve put off for far too long, so if you don’t hear from me for a while you’ll know why.

 

10th grade in review so far

• August 2020
• September 2020
• October 2020 (you are here)

 

 

2020 in Review

• January 2020
• February 2020
• March 2020
• April 2020
• May 2020
• June 2020
• July 2020
• August 2020
• September 2020
• October 2020 (you are here)