It's been awhile since updating + more sad news...

We survived another week of school.  5 weeks down, 4 more to go.  It was another hard week. 

Although summer may not feel that different, I am looking forward to NOT having to juggle TEACHING while keeping the kids occupied / focused / productive.  (I'm still taking my teaching classes and that will continue through the summer, but it will be nice to take something off of the plates that are spinning in the air!)  There is not a lot of photos to take from "school."  I have one of Isabella's Daily Challenges posted by her teacher:  to build a fort (on a really rainy day).  They were also studying 3D shapes.  Isabella built a triangular prism fort and a rectangular prism fort.  She wanted to sleep in it.  We tried, but in the middle of the night - she went back to her room because it kept collapsing!

Friday morning, a friend - Joan Ellars - passed away.  She was the director of Keep Marietta Beautiful. I really didn't post about sassy Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann).  I can only remember mentioning her once / posting a picture during Easter 2 years ago after she had her stroke.  I took dinner over to her (and her care-givers) once, but then invited her over for Easter dinner that same time-frame in 2018.   Even though there has not been a lot of mention, she has been a part of my (sort-of) professional life for close to 20 years.  I got hooked up with KMB when I organized a street clean for the last architecture office I worked for before moving over to the non-profit.

She was our kids self-proclaimed "Georgia Grandma" because her grandkids live in Texas.  We visited her at every Marietta festival.  She doted on us and the kids.  She knew how to make you feel special.  (She also had our kids' photos / Christmas cards on her wall in her office.  She got us in to see Santa one time when we didn't think we'd get to see him.  (She coordinated the beautiful Santa's visits to our square.) She was very outspoken about politics and we didn't agree on a lot of things, but, she did care for the environment and she certainly cared for May-retta.    


Certainly, while I was at the non-profit, the work I did was - in many ways - related to the work of KMB (which promoted clean water, recycling, and tree-planting).  I went to conferences related to  recycling with Joan and she even got me a speaking gig at the National Keep America Beautiful conference when it was in town a number of years ago.    I say "sort of" professional life (she wasn't the most professional person to say the least).  She was crass. She told jokes that would make a sailor blush.  She shocked people with what she said most of the time that I knew her.  But that's what people loved about her!  She was hilarious.

As mentioned, she had a pretty bad stroke in 2018... but we're not sure why she passed in her sleep Thursday night / Friday morning.  A friend that was in touch with her said that she wasn't feeling well Thursday, but refused to go to the hospital (either b/c she's stubborn or b/c of all of this Covid stuff).  Somone else I spoke to Friday said that she had been having kidney issues. 

We'll probably never know because her family is in Texas and I doubt they'll share the results of the autopsy.   There have been a lot of tributes to this woman who served the city of Marietta for 30 years.  The historic theater put a tribute up in her honor.  There was also a nice write-up in our local paper, the Marietta Daily Journal.

She approached me in November about taking over KMB.  I was honored and I was interested in the position (at the time).  I did brush up my resume and wrote the head of Parks and Rec a letter letting him know of my interest. (I've known him for a long time too.)  But, unfortunately, nothing has happened with her position since she retired at Thanksgiving.  It is sad to sort of see this legacy she built up dwindle over these past 5 months since she left.  I still go to some of the KMB board meetings (she would never let me quit her board even after the 2nd child!)... a lot of board members quit when she retired b/c they just went for her fun and her antics.  It will never be the same going back when they have meetings again.  The position will probably go to someone in the Parks and Rec department who helped a lot of KMB activities, but honestly, no one will ever be able to fill her shoes.  

She passed away on Arbor Day.  Earlier in the week (Wednesday April 22) was the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.  Unfortunately, it did not go "out with a bang" because of all of the sheltering in place mandates.  

I tried to get my students involved and encouraged them to share in some Earth Day activities, but only a handful participated.  Honestly - with the juggle of working with the kids and trying to teach, we didn't do anything on our end to celebrate on that specific day.

I did research Earth Day earlier in the month for an article I was working on and here are a couple of the most interesting facts I found on EarthDay.org:  

"Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to demonstrate against the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment and there were massive coast-to-coast rallies in cities, towns, and communities."

"Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers, business and labor leaders. By the end of 1970, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of other first of their kind environmental laws, including the National Environmental Education Act,  the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and the Clean Air Act."  

On Friday, we already had a boat trip planned with our neighbor, Orie.  He had offered awhile ago, but restrictions were tightened up after his offer, so he said we'd have to do it later.  Friday was "later."  The governor of GA lifted restrictions on Friday.  People are now allowed to go to the gym, to bowling alleys, to tatoo shops, hair and nail salons.  (Some of these choices do not make sense as there is no way to socially distance!!)  I told Orie taht I would bring temporary tatoos on the boat so it was legit.  :)  I forgot, but as you can see - we were pretty spread out.

Isabella did not want to be photographed.























Mercer was having fun watching his hair flop around in the wind.  He did not mind pictures this day!








































































I'm glad he got to chill a bit... because after the boat ride, he had to help me change my tire.  

It was F-L-A-T.  Thankfully Mr. Orie spotted it. It took all three of us to get the job done!  (At the tire shop, they couldn't figure out what caused it.)  A mystery. 











We saw a bit of nature too... a heron (no photo), a duck that Isabella got to feed and some geese with babies.  












It was nice to get out of the house for a change of scennergy even for a few hours.











Even if he did not get a change of sceenery, Mercer did get a change of activity this weekend.

He had a "virtual" birthday party.  It was an online video game party.  The boy's mom dropped off a goodie bag when we got home from the lake.  The parents set up a Zoom meeting.  The boys could see each other on the zoom on the computer (his mom sent me this photo)... and played inside the video game together.  The boys ate popcorn throughout the party, drank gatorade, had candy, then sang and had cupcakes towards the end of the party (these treats were wrapped up and included in the goodie bag).  It was a cute idea.  There have been a lot of creative celebrations.

Mercer's Boy Scout troop had a virtual campout that same night.  He had to set up his own tent in the back yard, then log into the Zoom meeting and show his campsite.  He had to make his own dinner and log in.  They took another break (we played card games - Mercer is trying to emulate the emoji face on the card) then checked backed in before bed with tales.  


Mercer slept in the tent out back ALL BY HIMSELF last night.  I asked if he wanted me to stay out there with him.... and... nope.  
(We did sleep with our back bedroom door and pulled the screen across so we could hear him if he needed us.  He did feel more secure knowing we could hear.)

He did it!  He came in about 8:00 this morning.  He survived the night on his own!  (He was listening to sports raido the whole time... and ultimately, so were we since we could hear it!)    

Even though Mercer was supposed to do everything, Todd worked pretty hard to make sure this happened.



Speaking of sports.... Todd - as always - tuned into the NFL draft.  Of course, things were different because of the shelter-in-place.  It was being hosted in the Commissioner's basement and all of the draft picks were shown in different people's homes.  It's interesting how they figured out how to have this big annual event.

Saturday Night Live finally had a show a couple of weeks ago.  It wasn't great.  The following week, it was a replay, but they did another show last night.  It was better than the first one that was done remotely.

There is a show that I am enjoying watching:  John Krasinski (Jim, from the Office) has started reporting "Some Good News."  (SGN)  He's reporting about how people are making masks.  Corporations are donating massive amounts of money to different relief efforts for the hungry and for medical supplies.  Technical programs in high schools and colleges are using 3D printers to make face shields.  

In fact, there's something really cool happening here:  someone who used to go to our church started a fund-raiser to support BOTH the healthcare workers at the hospital near our house AND local restaurants where their sales have declined.  They had a fundraiser to sell signs to show support of the healthcare workers.  We have one at ourhouse and one at Todd's office since he works really close to the hospital.  Hopefully they see and they feel supported. (To date on the go-fund-me and other fundraising efforts, they raised ~$55,000 and fed about 6400 meals so far.)  It solves 2 problems and helps lots of people!

We made 20 cards for healthcare workers recently & did a drive-by drop off at a local park that this non-profit was having last Saturday at the collection event .  There's a little girl who has started a non-profit where she (and others who she can pull in) do service projects.  Her group is called KIDS CARE which stands for "Kindness in Doing Service" and "Connecting and Respecting Everyone."  So awesome that she's having a big reach across our community!



Not only are great things happening in our community.... they're happening across the country.  So, there's Some Good News to add to this blog post.  

(This particular episode of SGN - above - has our former pastor, Keith Gunter in it.  He and his children made their own SGN episode.  How cool is that?!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oilZ1hNZPRM )

I have stopped following the news updates and the overall totals (almost 3 million have tested positive / over 200,000 have died.  There are almost 1 million in the US that have tested positive / over 54,000 have died in the US).  It's hard NOT to hear how much critism the Govenor and the state of Georgia has been getting (nationally).  Georgia has been on the Today Show, the late night shows, etc.  People are citing us as guinea pigs to see how the virus may start spreading more.  Colorado and Texas also started releasing some of the restrictions.  People are very concerned about the economy.  (On the news, a lot of hair salons, for instance were saying that they were NOT opening.)  Our church was able to open again today, but our pastor said that they don't have enough PPE (personal protection equipment) or sanitizer... so they were waiting. Restaurants and movie theaters are able to open tomorrow.  Again - many are waiting.

The graph shows when the limits on the public gatherings was established in Georgia.  And - about 2 weeks later, the upward trend of deaths did slow.  Then the graph shows when the shelter-in-place took place... an the curve flattened. (the gray part - the statistics are still coming in and the data is likely to increase.)   I hate to say it, but predications are that it will spike and the death-toll will go on that upward trend again.  We'll see.  

was going to post Sunday night however, received some bad news and just couldn't....

There was not a lot to post on Sunday - except for another update on the Covid-19 situation and our family bike ride that we took.  (Here are those updates.)  

The Covid update is from tonight, however, instead of Sunday.   There are over 2.5 million diagnosed world-wide, 177,000 + deaths world-wide.  There are approximately 825,000 diagnosed in the US and just over 45,000 deaths in the US associated with this.   

Isabella is riding her new bike.  We rode on the Marietta Mountain-to-River trail.... and we went further than we normally go.  (Past the big cemetary at the south side of the city.)  

This photo is not great - but is the only one I got while riding... it was hard grabbing my phone and snapping the photo while en-route (and then I got behind!)

Our family bike ride was eagerly in celebration of Isabella riding her new bike without training wheels.  There was a giant hill on the other side of the cemetary and Isabella wouldn't go down it.  (She walked her bike down a moderate hill on the bridge before the cemetary too.)  Otherwise, she is doing fantastic and wants to ride ALL.THE.TIME. 

Mercer is becoing more and more daring on his bike - riding without hands sometimes and testing stunts in the yard. His bike-riding confidence has soared!

Afterwards, Todd and the kids had ice cream.  You could not walk into the store - they had an at-the-door "counter" set up.  

There were a fair amount of people at the square and were appropriately distancing.  



As we are celebrating bicycles, unfortunately, we were faced with the reality of how dangerous it can be as well.



The rug was pulled from under us Sunday night when we received a text that one of Mercer's baseball teammates (on All-Stars and on the travel team) was riding his bike and was hit by a car in his neighborhood and was in critical condition.  About 10 minutes later, we received a text that he didn't make it.

It was just so shocking.  This particular kid had an infectious smile and what everyone seems to remember about him most:  he loved to joke around.  He was 11 years old and he really really loved baseball.  His dad travelled a lot, so I didn't get to know him as well as his mother - but I just can't imagine the pain they're going through. 

Todd coached Blake several seasons + got to know him and the family well through the years the boys were growing up.   Blake had an older brother - age 15 - who was also very much into baseball.  The baseball park said (in their write-up) that Blake literally grew up at the park. 

The community that was built through All-Stars and through the travel/tournament team was a tighter bond, of course, than that of the regular rec league teams each season.  

There are already memorials getting set up at the school where he went (5th grader at an elementary school where his mom is the school nurse)... and there will be memorials at the ballfield / things wil happen when the field reopens.  He is #12 and they're going to do some things with #12 on it moving forward.  

He was one of the 9 kids honored along with Mercer for playing in little league his "whole career" at East Marietta.  (His older brother was too.)  Most of the kids on the All-Stars are the same kids on the travel / tournament team (Spikes).  

The Board of Commissioners (which has a lot of parents from All-Stars / Spikes) asked teammates to make signs that were put in their yard.  










The first sign is what Mercer says about his teammate:  he told good jokes and was a good ball player.  He hasn't said very much about all of this, however, says that he will miss Blake.









Mercer had the idea to write his name like the braves logo on the one sign.  My idea was to turn a baseball into a heart.  Todd's idea was to say that he was a "Spike" forever. 

I like the baseball that someone left.  















This certainly makes us hug our kids a little tighter... and making sure that we're out in the street while the kids are riding bikes.  

We lit a couple of candles in his honor tonight.

It is so, so sad.  What a devestating loss. 

Happy 7th Adoption Day!

Before posting about the good stuff.... here's reporting on the not-so-good stuff:

2.2 million+ confirmed.  Over 150,000 have passed world-wide.

In the US, there are 700,000 confirmed (more than Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the UK combined) and almost 37,000 that have passed away.  New York is has about 1/3 of those that have passed.


In Georgia, over 17,000 have been confirmed; 668 have passed. 

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Thank goodness it's Friday.  This week - getting back into the swing of things after "spring break" was really pretty rough.   The lines are very blurred.  How is this week different than last week (during break)??!!  Both kids were having a hard time -- especially the littlest one.  One thing that held her interest that we did today:  we made a bubble wand out of a clothes hangar for her Mile (gifted) class.  It worked out quite nicely! 

Her school teacher put a sign in the yard -- something that the elementary school had their teachers do.  (This is definitely above and beyond the call of duty for a teacher!)  I guess at an elementary school, all of the kids are close by one-another.... and the teachers only have 20+ students.   I can't imagine doing something like that for my 100+ students at my current school!

Today is Isabella's adoption day.  7 years ago today she officially, legally joined our family.  (We had these little bundt cakes delivered.... which was a big treat!)  

After "school" was done and once Todd came home from work, we had dinner, then presented her with her new present!  We asked her what she wanted.... something that she could use now that she's getting bigger.  Thankfully, she said she wanted a new bike.  Whew!







We found one the day before online at a used bike shop.  This one was in excellent condition.  A schwinn that is purple and has butterflies on it!!  Here is her surprised face when she first saw it + she was jumping for joy 'til she could hop on it!  

This bike does not have any training wheels AND it has much bigger tires (we jumped from a 12 to a 20" -- we were going to go with 16", but we pushed up to the next level based on age and height charts). 

We were concerned about the big jump -- especially considering that she only dropped the training wheels a couple of days ago.  

But... she is knocking this out of the park!