Category: March

A coworker of Ryan’s rescued a cat a few months ago. It was really skinny and had an infection. They shaved her and took her to the vet. It is a girl, she was owned by someone at some point because she has been spayed and declawed. But they either let her go or she got away and was lost. The vet thinks she is about 10 years old. So they named her Coco and brought her home. She has grown her hair back and put on a little weight but they had two other cats and she doesn’t like other cats or dogs. I would guess that since she has been declawed and on her own she can’t really defend herself so she has to bluff and fight with all her might when she was on her own so she goes on the offensive pretty quick. So she was their downstairs cat and the other cats they had lived upstairs. They mentioned that if anyone wanted or knew of someone that wanted a cat they were trying to find one for her. Her hair has grown back and she has put on a little weight but is still pretty skinny.

We weren’t really looking for a pet but the girls are always asking for a dog or cat. I wouldn’t want to declaw a cat, but since she already is, and she is older. I thought she would be a good one to try. We agreed to take her for a few weeks and do a trial run. Just in case one of us was allergic or we decided she wasn’t a good fit. It took about two days and I think all of us were pretty much attached to her. She is a sweetheart. She loves to snuggle and follow you around. They gave us special cat food for her because they said she was throwing up a lot when they got her. She still eats that but we give her chicken and turkey too. She seems to like it and has already put on a little more weight. We have had her for a week and plan on keeping her.

None of us really love the name Coco but we can’t decide on any other name that we all agree on so we call her Coco and a bunch of other ones right now until one sticks.

As you can see she is a great snuggler.

March brought us a semi chilly Spring Break this year. We decided to go and see some family for part of our break. Ryan had some work and his annual man trip with his mission buddies to work around our break. Matthew had some baseball games and practices to work around.

So, Friday, the girls and Ryan left for Arkansas to see the Torgerson family. My girls really like spending time with there cousins down there so they were packed and ready to go the second they got home from school. There was a pretty bad storm passing through. Ryan joked that he was more scared of telling the girls we had to wait for the storm then driving through the storm. So he braved the weather and it ended up not being to bad and they made it Friday night. Matthew and I followed them and arrived in Arkansas early Saturday afternoon. We played games, visited, went to Top Golf, went shopping, played outside, went to church with them on Sunday, and enjoyed their company. They are a very easy family to spend time with. I enjoy getting to know them better each time we see them.

Monday morning, Ryan left for home for a few meetings he had for work before leaving for Vegas on Tuesday evening. The kids and I left Arkansas and headed to Dallas to see Sherri and her family. We played games, hit all the cookie spots, drink spots, and ice cream spots, watched movies and hung out. Tuesday morning we got up a early and went to a drive through safari. It was all enjoyable but the giraffes were a hit. They were hungry and had no problem using there giant lips and tongue to search out the food they new we had. One of them took the whole bag from Matthew and ate it with the food inside.

Matthew had baseball games Thursday morning so we left Dallas Wednesday morning and spent the day on the road. The games were pretty chilly, down right frigid, but the sun did come out so it seemed not as bad. Friday and Saturday were relax at home days and catch up on ‘all the things’ that pile up. Ryan got home Sunday and he and I both went back to work Monday, but for some reason the kids had one more day of Spring Break so they got to sleep in and be lazy an extra day. It was a nice Spring Break. Its nice to see family and have some new experiences with them.

Spring Break was a week earlier than it usually is for us. That might not seem like a big difference but in Kansas in the Spring that makes a big difference as far as temperature. For the first part of our Spring Break, Kenny and Sherri came to stay with us for a few days. It wasn’t quite warm enough to do a lot of yard things but Sherri helped me make a plan, and we picked out the rocks and plants to put in when it got warm enough a few weeks later. A house surrounded by three acres of mud gets messy really quick so we were anxious to get some landscaping in.

We did some shopping and visiting and went to dinner a few times while they were here too. Allison is great at babysitting and her and Emilee both enjoy spending time with cousins. KJ showed us real quick how un-baby proof our house is now.

Ryan had to go to a conference in Omaha for work for the last part of our Spring Break. On the last day of his conference, the kids and I drove up and we had a fun mini-cation in Omaha Nebraska. We stayed in a hotel for two nights. When we got there and checked in the first thing we did was an escape room. One of the family Christmas gifts we got was a “family escape room night” and we hadn’t done it yet. We picked a room with a batman theme that had a 17% success rate. I thought is was a lot of fun. Each of us picked a piece of the puzzle and worked on it. Allison solved hers then jumped to someone else and helped them finish. She could have easily finished it by herself. It is fun to see how her brain works through things. By the end the puzzle Matthew had was the last one and tricky because it seemed like we didn’t have all the info we needed but we had found all the clues. Someone finally came on the intercom and told us that we were missing half of his puzzle because one of the keys we found accidently opened two things instead of just one and we used it to open the one it shouldn’t have been able to open, so we thought we had found all the clues but had missed one. Once we figured that out and found the other half we solved it with time to spare. Technically they said since they had to help us we didn’t get a free t-shirt. I think since it was an error in their puzzles that required them to help us that shouldn’t have counted. Ryan and I didn’t debate with them though so our kids didn’t have to crawl under a table and die from embarrassment. We went and got dinner then tried out an ice cream place right by our hotel that turned out to be delightfully delicious. Later that night we went and saw Kung-Fu Panda in the movie theater together.

The next day we went to the Omaha Zoo. The last time we went to the zoo as a family we were still in the stroller, carrying snacks and hungry, hot, or need to use the bathroom every five minute stage. It was a fun time and we saw lots of animals but after a full day at the zoo, there was still a lot of zoo left to see and everyone was exhausted. Let me tell you, going to the zoo with three grown children is A-MAZ-ING! If anyone wanted to carry something they carried it themselves. We ate breakfast before we went and planned on getting lunch there. However, we were able to walk through the entire zoo and see everything we wanted to see in a few hours. By the time we were hungry we were done and went and found a restaurant outside the zoo. We picked a Mexican restaurant called Mexicity. It was a local restaurant and we could barely understand the owner because of his accent but he made delightful authentic Mexican food. It was so good. All of us practically licked our plates clean. A few months later we still talk about how good it was. A little hidden gem in Omaha Nebraska. Who would have guessed!?

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and stopped at the ice cream place on the way again. They had some different flavors than the day before so we each got something different to try and share. We played games at the hotel lobby that night, then headed home the next morning. We usually get two rooms when we stay in hotels now. The kids share a room and Ryan and I get our own. Everyone get a bed and everyone is happy. It was a pretty fun trip.

We tried to squeeze some fun things in for Spring Break this year. We started with Ryan and I taking the girls to Pinot’s Palette. It is a painting place. They teach you to paint a picture and you get to take it home when your done. The night we went was glow in the dark night too. So we had all the lights off and painted with a black light only. The picture looked way different when they turned the regular lights back on. It was a lot of fun. When we were done we went to get a cookie from Matthew who was working at his job at Twisted Sugar and couldn’t come with us. We showed him our pictures but mixed them up and had him guess who painted which picture. He didn’t guess any of us correctly.

Ryan and Matthew were finally able to go on the trip they had planned for Spring Break in March 2020 that was cancelled due to COVID. They went to Spring Training for the Royals in Arizona. They got lots of manly activities and manly talk in over the few days they were there. They saw several baseball games. Matthew ran into one of his former baseball buddies at one of them. They did some golfing, ate lots of pizza and other manly junk food. They also went to an NBA game and had a blast.

About mid week Matthew flew home and Ryan drove to Vegas with a mission buddy of his for their annual man-trip were they spend as much time watching as many March Madness basketball games as they can between eating at delicious buffets and trips to Bass Pro.

The girls and I stayed at home and did some fun activities on our own. We did Urban Air trampoline park, movies, sleepovers with cousins, and some rock climbing. THe weather in Arizona was beautiful. The weather in Kansas was not-we even had snow a few times. We all had a good week doing things with each other and others. Then when is was all done and we were all home we went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant- K Macho’s and told each other all about it. It was overall a pretty good spring break.

My sweet Grandma-Annie Joy Pinegar Jones passed away last night in her sleep. She was one of the kindest, sweetest people. She celebrated her 90th birthday just two days before she passed away. She has been in a lot of pain and not wanted to eat the past year but she still loved to have company and did her best to visit.

The last time I saw her was last April. She struggled with her memory sometimes but she knew who I was most of the time and we had a good visit. I have many special memories of her throughout my life. She was an amazing musician. She was my first piano teacher. I was practicing on her piano one day and I missed a note and was struggling to figure it out. From the kitchen she said, “Move your 4th finger on your left hand down two white keys.” She did that more than once. She had a beautiful singing voice too. She played the piano and her trumpet all over the world. I could listen to her play for hours. She usually played one or both when we had a family gathering, reunion, or a family home evening. One of the songs that will always remind me of her is “Danny Boy”. She wrote many songs too, we have a little blue book of sweet songs she wrote for her kids and grandkids to use for Family Home Evenings. “Families Are Fun To Belong To” is now in its fourth generation of being sung in Jones families across the country.

When I was really young we lived pretty close to them and saw them often. She had sleepovers with the grandchildren. She didn’t really enjoy cooking but she always made sure you had something to eat when you came over. The first thing she said after giving you a hug was, “Are you hungry?” It didn’t really matter what your answer was, she would make you eat something. Their home grown grape juice and canned peaches with a piece of toast was always a favorite of mine. Cold cereal is a staple at their house and I have carried that tradition on in mine.

One time, I wanted to go swimming with my aunt and her friends and was disappointed I didn’t get to go. Grandma found a swimsuit for me and pinned it to fit me and had grandpa put a sprinkler on a tarp on their back yard hill so I could slide down it. Then I sunned on a blanket with Grandpa. Her and my grandpa had more family gatherings then I could ever count at their house. My cousins and I spent many hours doing our makeup in her bathroom and then showing everyone how we did. I remember making cookies with her and deciding to try my hand at juggling the eggs. Of course it being my first attempt ever at juggling it was a complete disaster. She had a very surprised look on her face when I explained what I had been attempting to do, but she was patient and told me to practice with grandpas tennis balls outside instead of eggs.

When I was older we lived farther away and didn’t see them as much but they came to visit us and we spent many fun Summer vacations at their house. They often put together family reunions for everyone to come to and see each other. She always sent a card for my birthday and Christmas.

She served missions for our church in Jerusalem, and Washington DC with my grandpa. She walked with her best friend every morning for decades. She was always happy and concerned with taking care of everyone and making sure you were comfortable. She had a sweet laugh. Her Christmas tree was usually flocked and always seemed huge in my memory. I don’t remember her ever being angry but I remember her talking about something one of her grandkids had done and calling them, “a little shit”. I still laugh at that memory. Sundays she always had curlers in her hair, and played beautiful music. She thought she was being a bad grandma if you helped with dishes or did any cleaning. She wanted us to play and enjoy ourselves at her house. She was self conscious about her hair and how thin it got but I thought she always looked beautiful. She had classic, timeless beauty.

I am her name sake. I have always felt special and proud to be named after her. The first words that pop into my head when I think of her are; joy, family, kind, patient, consistent, constant, loving, music, family history, caring, sweet, and strong testimony of the Savior. I will miss her. I know she is in Heaven, having sweet reunions with her past family and friends. She is probably playing a trumpet too. I love you Grandma Jones.

We stayed home this year for Spring Break. We are toying with the idea of building a house and have some things going to see what we could get approved for on a loan so we didn’t want to do anything to extravagant. To help add a little bit of fun to the week, I agreed to watch our friends dog Po. He is a Berna-doodle, at least 100lbs, a fluff ball, and very playful. They had a lot of fun with him.

Matthew took him to the dog park a few times and he slept with him at night. Emilee fed him and took him on a few walks. Allison catered to his every need and whim. She barely left his side. They all played with him and had a good time. He is a pretty smart dog. He knew how to play hide-n-seek so they played that for hours.

They were hoping it would change my mind about wanting a dog but I told them from the start that wasn’t going to happen and this was just for a week. I thought he was a very good dog but he made everything smell like a dog, scratched my floors and required a lot of work that I don’t have energy for.

He brought a lot of fun to our Spring Break, and now when we see him at our friends he is very excited to see us. We fit some other fun stuff in for our Spring Break too. Emilee did horse camp, we saw several movies together, had lots of play dates, went to lunch together, the zoo, and stayed up to late and slept in to long. It was great.

The last part of the break Ryan went on his 15th annual March madness trip with his BFF Mike and Sam.

According to my children, I am an obsessive compulsive cleaner. According to me my children are messy lazy slobs. Of course we both disagree with each others perspectives of the other, but as I love to tell them I am the mom, the adult, the owner of the house, and maker of the rules so for now they have to do it my way. This opinion of each other leads to a constant debate in our home, as I am sure it happens in many homes, when a chore is given between “I did do (fill in job requested)!” and “You did not do (fill in job requested) well.” A simple task that if done immediately and correctly would take 5-10 minutes can be dragged out for hours. It is truly exhausting.

The other day when they were doing some of their jobs, several of them needed to use the vacuum. I was doing some things of my own and also needed to use the vacuum. As all of us used it and passed it around I noticed this;

According to our usual MO’s the loosely wrapped cord would be my kids doing, and the neatly wrapped cord would be mine. However, many years ago I decided it was annoying to wrap and unwrap the cord every time I used the vacuum that I keep in the closet and never look at. I started wrapping it as shown in exhibit A. A little bit messy but that is the way I prefer it. Such a slacker, I know. You would think my children-that cut every corner they can when doing their chores-would be all for wrapping the cord this way. Honestly, I’m surprised that it gets wrapped up in any way at all but all three of my children- every single one of them- neatly rolls the cord up as soon as they are done using the vacuum. They don’t put it away of course but they wrap the cord and tuck it in all nice and neat. AND IT DRIVES ME CRAZY. I will say nothing though. I am not willing to find out what happens if I suggest my kids do something less… thorough. All my ‘harping and nagging’ over the years has taken root in their heads to wrap the vacuum cord. I can only hope that one day it will spread to throwing their trash away, or putting their dirty dishes in the dishwasher with out being told. Maybe it will spontaneously pop into their heads one day to put their dirty socks in the laundry bin instead of leaving it wherever they take them off. That hope keeps me from telling them, they don’t have to wrap the vacuum cord. That is irony at its finest for you.

This post has nothing to do with basketball. The title is just referring to our regular lives and happenings.

Allison has wanted to have colored hair for a while so we finally got around to it. She loves it and the attention she gets with it.

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We caught Grandpa surfing his phone…I mean taking a nap while he thought he was surfing his phone.

Ryan and I booked our 20th anniversary cruise for next May 2022. We are pretty excited! We decided on our 10th anniversary this is what we wanted to do. It is going to be awesome!

I was out of town and Ryan had the pleasure of taking the kids to church on his own. Whenever this happens he makes a point of getting the kids there 20 minutes early and rubbing it in my face because we usually screech in right on time. He did it again this time, but stepped up his game by having the Bishop send me the picture of my smiling family arriving to church 20 minutes early, instead of him. I think he is implying that I am the reason everyone is late but that is a bunch of garbage. He also sent me a picture of Emilee and her decision of what to wear to church that day. The girl rocks her own style.

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I met Ryan at a parking lot the other day and noticed a new addition to his car. This is his required license plate cover for the next month or so. He forgot to mention it to me, but like I said, I noticed, and have made sure it is now documented. What a good sport he is! I will also note that it had recently snowed and there was still snow on the roads so that is the reason for the atrociously egregious filthy condition of his beloved car. Under usual conditions it is spotless.

Another first for our family. Matthew went into have some tests done to check out his growth hormone levels. He had to get an IV that he was trying to play cool for but he was pretty nervous. When he was six and had to have some blood drawn it took me (7 months pregnant with Allison) and two male nurses to hold him still enough for the third nurse to draw the blood. His self control and braveness have improved a lot in the past 8 years as you might expect. He handled it like a champ.

I saw this little meme somewhere on my phone the other day and screen shot it because it is true and a good reminder.

Allison and dad got their garden started. They planted a salad/salsa garden. There will be lots of peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and pea plant just for me.

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There has been some videos on the news of people that live by hospitals coming out to their balconies at shift change time (which is usually 7am or 7pm) and clapping and cheering for the doctors and nurses and other health care staff that are working so hard right now helping all the patients with COVID 19. It is very touching and it is great that the people living by the hospitals show support for them.

Our neighbor across the street has apparently also seen these videos and is trying to get a neighborhood nightly ritual going. They have been posting on FB and texts to the neighborhood asking to have people come out at 7pm every night and clap for one minute for the health care workers. Might I point out that there are no actual health care workers.

The first time they did it, we were not aware of what they were doing. Ryan and Matthew were playing catch in the street by the front yard. All of the sudden their whole Stutzman family came out and without saying a word start clapping and cheering. Ryan and Matthew didn’t know what they were doing and thought they were clapping at them for some reason. They stopped and looked at them and then after the minute ended without a word they all turned around and went back in their house.

The next night we got a text from a different neighbor explaining what was going on and said that it was going to be something that happened every night at 7pm. We forgot and missed it that night.

Tonight we set an alarm because we got more text invites and didn’t want to be the stick in the mudds. So at 6:59 I dragged the kids to the front porch and told them we were going to clap for 1 minute for all the healthcare workers. At 7 o’clock sharp the Stutzman family came out and started clapping…our family and one other family were the only other families I could see. We all clapped for a minute then at 7:01 the Stutzman family stopped and walked back into their house. The entire time we were clapping my kids repeatedly asked me questions like, “Why are we doing this?” “When are the doctors coming?” “Why are we clapping if no one is here?” “Can the doctors and nurses see us and we just don’t know?”

It was a little weird. Again, if they were actual people to clap for I would be all for it…but since there isn’t…I think it is strange for people to come out on the porch and clap for a minute with out any converstation and then go back inside. At least say hi and wave or something.

We might be busy at 7pm most nights.

The last 24 hours have been a busy one for our little neighborhood area. They say things happen in threes but we might be going for three sets of threes.

To start it off, yesterday I was doing some lawn work and trimming up some bushes for Spring. I was using our electric trimmer and the automatic shut off switch that is supposed to release when you take your hand of the power button got stuck and I wasn’t being careful enough so I cut my middle left finger through the side into my nail. I had a glove on and was hoping when I pulled it off that it wouldn’t be bad enough to need stitches but could tell immediately that was not the case. So I went in to wash it off and was debating with myself to just super glue it instead of going into the doctors with all this virus crap. Ryan saw it and said I had to go get stitches. I told him to call my regular doctor instead of going to the ER. He tried calling Steve to see if he could stitch me up but he didn’t answer. My doctor wasn’t in but another doctor said he could do it. Ryan drove me there but he couldn’t come in. Everyone was wearing masks, and by that I mean the skeleton crew that was working. I didn’t see any other patient. I had to fill out a bunch of paper work to screen me for any possible sign of Covid 19. Then there were only some chairs labeled that I was ‘allowed’ to sit in. Talk about feeling like you are in some apocalyptic movie but it is your actual life. The doctor said it needed one or two stitches. While his two nurses where getting the room ready for ‘the finger lady’ they had a very loud conversation with each other about how it is ridiculous that people can’t follow directions and stay home and not do unnecessary things. Then they specifically mentioned that yard work and house work are not necessary. They were sure to leave the door open too in case I couldn’t hear them through that. I was pretty ticked. The doctor numbed me up and gave me my stitches. When he left the nurse told me to come back in a week to have the stitches taken out. I told her I could take my own stitches out so I didn’t have to come back and put up with her poor bedside manner again. Then I walked out. That was a lot nicer than the other things going on in my head. Give me a break. I know lots of nurses and health care workers that are caring and compassionate. It is kind of part of the job. Why go into healthcare to help people in stressful hard situations if you are that unpleasant of a person.

Later that night we had a really gnarly thunderstorm and shortly after a loud crack of thunder a bunch of sirens came over by us. Someone’s house had been struck by lightning and caught fire. I don’t know how extensive the damage was before they were able to put it out.

Matthew’s friend a street over had the fire department show up at his house today. His older brother ordered a new battery for his phone. When he put it in, it started getting really hot, he dropped it on the floor so it wouldn’t burn him and it caught the carpet on fire! They got it out pretty quick so it is just a small area of carpet they will have to replace.

Tonight Ryan and I went on a walk after dinner. We started hearing all kinds of sirens around us. When we got around the park we saw a bunch of lights in the school playground. The neighbors that were out watching said it was some kind of a medical emergency. We kept going and headed back in the direction of our house.

When we turned the corner there were a bunch more police cars blocking off the roads. We had to walk that way to get back to our house. We asked the neighbors in that area what was happening and they said that there had been shots fired at “Crazy John’s house” which is on the next corner up from where we were. We walked back home and there were police cars across the street from us in our neighbors back yard blocking off the house from that direction. Then we could hear the police announcing over their speaker, “This is the Olathe Police Department, John come out with your hands up.” They said it about five times. Then he must have come out because shortly after that they all left. I haven’t heard if anyone was hurt of not.

Lots of craziness. Hopefully it is done. You can tell that some people are starting to get a little crazy with all the changes because of the virus. I don’t know if any of these were related or not, just reports and posts I see on the internet are starting to have some crazies coming out. We were worried our kids were going to be panicked when we got home with all the police cars around. A while back our neighbors had a fire truck come to their house while we were gone because of a medical emergency and the kids were freaking out about it. Luckily when we got home tonight they were all in there evening electronic comas and where none the wiser to the whole situation.

This is going to get weird. It already is weird but when I stop and focus on it, it feels even more weird. It is like I am in one of those movies where someone is stranded or lost at sea and they start counting the days. It has been 12 days since they asked people to so a 14 day self quarantine. They announced yesterday that starting this Tuesday at noon there will be an even more strict 30 quarantine going into effect. Basically all businesses that are not essential are to be closed and other than emergencies, no one should leave their house unless it is to go to the bank, grocery store, hardware store, or doctor office. I have also heard that they will start fining people that are not following the quarantine and multiple offenders can even get up to 6 months of jail time. I have not verified that so I don’t know if it is true or not. This is when things could start getting ugly.

Matthew and Allison seem to be doing ok so far. I can tell Emilee is stressed, the past day or so I can tell she is getting some pent up energy and she keeps asking a lot of the same questions over and over. Maybe I will start a rating system for how we are all doing mentally.

We had church today. This is the first time in my life that I have ever had to have the sacrament done in my own home. I thought is was a really good meeting. I could feel the Spirit. It is a huge blessing and comfort that we have the Lords gospel and it is organized and clear how to do things. Even when new situations that haven’t ever really happened before come up there is a clear process and way to do things. We kept it pretty simple and did an opening song,prayer,business, sacrament song, Ryan blessed the sacrament and Matthew passed it, then we read scriptures and had a closing song and prayer. Our Primary pianist and chorister made a video for the kids to watch for singing time so we did that afterwards. We assigned out some parts for next weeks church.

We had a planning meeting today also for this upcoming week. We talked about making sure all our bodies needs are met-physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. We discussed things that each of us need to do each day like;

1. Switch off between exercising and stretching for 45 minutes each day
2. Personal prayer and scriptures
3. Family prayer and scriptures
4. Read for fun for a minimum of 30 minutes a day
5. Go outside everyday
6. Daily chores
7. Laundry helper (kids will rotate each week)
8. Cooking helper
9. Practice piano minimum of 20 minutes each day
10. Teaching life skills with mom ~2 times a week
11. Hygiene habits with mom ~2 times a week

There is other things that vary a little bit but those are the things that will be standard each week. School stuff will get added in there too when the school stuff is out online from the district more. Life skills and hygiene habits are short little sessions with mom that review some aspect of hygiene (like using a q-tip) or life skills (how to sweep a floor) that they already know or should know but need a review. For example today we covered how to shower. They thought it was hilarious and were mortified that I had a stick figure drawing to help illustrate but all of them discovered 2-3 things that they were forgetting or not doing right.

Allison is going to get a little garden started this week with her dad. She is hoping to be able to do a salad garden with lettuce, peppers, and carrots. She wants to take over the whole back yard but I told her she has to start small and if it goes well she can expand.

Ryan is going to build the shelves in the basement bedroom closet. Emilee and I are going to finish condensing the toy room and her room while I finish getting the basement bedroom converted from a toy room to a bedroom. Matthew is planning on focusing a lot on his hitting and throwing for baseball.

It is all just odd. The world we lived and worked and socialized in less than two weeks ago has completely changed. Basically it has been canceled. There is nothing to prepare or get ready for, nothing to go to. It is a weird feeling. No reason to go to bed, no reason to get up in the morning. No plans. At. All. I can see how isolation can get to people. I wouldn’t say it is getting to me yet. I am pretty good at being alone but I have always had the option to change that when I decide I am not good with it anymore. I have my family too, so technically I am not alone. People that are single or live alone are in for a long couple months. Ryan is lucky to still have a job to work at home from too. So many people have been let go or had to close their business and that starts a whole other train of people that become affected as well. The economy was strong-growing and thriving in fact but this is a huge set back to recover from. I wish they would just implement a ‘pause’ in all of the financial stuff until this is over so people don’t have to declare bankruptcy or lose their job. It is going to be a job to get everthing ‘back to normal’.

I am sick of social media. The memes are funny but the rest of it just drives me crazy. Lots of rumors, misinformed or uniformed people ‘explaining’ things, people criticizing others. There is lots of good stuff going on as well. Many businesses and people are donating supplies or food or services during this time. I have taken a break from pretty much all of the news for the next little while. Ryan will let me know if I need to know something.

The icing on the cake today it that we found another gift from our crappy builder this morning. It has been raining a lot and one of our living room windows has water dripping inside from somewhere. We are thinking it is probably flashing or something but…getting it fixed is going to be a pickle. It might just be a ‘caulk the crap out of it’ until all this is over fix.