Our Ultimate Life: September 2021

Trisha and her family came out to Arco for Labor Day. Shae brought her cute boyfriend Boston who is the nicest kid ever. We did a bike ride in the morning when they first got here, and in the afternoon we decided to go to the swinging tree. I love driving up that canyon; it never gets old. When we got back from pass creek we made peach cobbler and then Trisha's fam headed back home. It was the perfect day!

Since Butte only has a four-day week, that left three days for teaching. Thanks to some brainstorming with Justin on our anniversary date, I came up with a fun cell organelle project for the kids to do. They spent two days on it and on the third day I set up everyone's projects and we took a glorified quiz using everyone's creations. There was some good learning happening all up in that week! Friday we had teacher in-service. I asked my boss how much I needed to be there since I'm only part time. I showed up in the morning and let myself out a couple of hours into it. It was a major WASTE of time and I thought I am NOT staying away from my family for this. 😂 I ended up going back to the school to set up a cell theory lab for the following week. That night I started to feel a little off - I wonder if I picked up the virus from another science teacher who was out due to Covid; I had to rummage around her room for the lab supplies.

Happy 3 months Beckham!

Saturday I was feeling pretty tired so I stayed home with Emmett and Beckham while Justin took Logan to Pocatello for some Costco/Winco shopping. I did another box of peaches Mom had bought for me while they were gone. I took a nap that afternoon and had an off/on fever throughout the day. Same story for Sunday: I stayed home with the baby while the big boys went to church. Justin helped set up my singing time activity for my sub - bless him. My fever was off/on part of that day and I mostly rested up. Mom and Dad came to say hello but stayed outside in case I had Covid.

I had a mysterious allergic reaction from some garden tomatoes: I looked like I gained 100 pounds from the looks of my face!

Celery Juice - cheers! Still a little swollen here

Come Monday morning I was feeling much better, but not well enough to teach yet so I called in for a sub. I got in touch with the superintendent to see what he wanted me to do as far as getting tested to make sure it was safe to come back to work. I planned on getting tested the next day, and that night like clockwork my sense of smell/taste disappeared! Greeeeaaaaat. I got my positive test on Tuesday so I was out for the rest of the week teaching-wise (so much for that cell theory lab!). Justin started to feel like he was probably coming down with it as well and he's had a few low energy days, but no fever for him. He lost his sense of smell yesterday but he still has most of his taste, so that's lucky for him. We've mostly just been resting up and having a chill week at home while we quarantine. For us, Covid has been pretty mild, just lingering. I'm on day 8 and I finally feel the fatigue has let up. I hope to take another test Monday (day 10) that comes back negative so I can go back to work. I'm grateful to have a healthy immune system that handled it just fine, and now I have antibodies to protect Beckham as long as I'm nursing him. Emmett and Logan show zero signs of anything, so overall we're feeling pretty blessed to have long-term, robust immunity.

love my flowers on the garden edge

getting eggs with Mom

Emmett built an Archaeopteryx - he says all the different colored legos are the feathers.

I used my week off to get ahead on the garden. Justin dug out all the sunflowers and I deadheaded all the flowers on my garden edge that were done blooming. I wish I could say I used my time off to get ahead on my scope and sequence for the year, but I'm just going to be happy taking things one week at a time.