End of school - summer officially begun for the kids....

Well, the end of school went off with a dud.  It's expected.... we were quarantining at home for the previous 2 months.  School ended for the kids on Friday, May 22, but things really started to wind down before their official last day.  

Mercer had a handful of assignments to do right at the end.  He had a bunch of Spanish videos to watch and answer questions on.  One of them was making a Spanish omelette... like what Todd and I had in Spain on our honeymoon.  We had the ingredients, so he helped me make dinner.  It turned out to be a scramble, but hey - it was different!  

I awarded Mercer "Middle School Student of the Month" in our household.  Ha~  

Isabella sort of "checked out" after she had a class party at the beginning of the week.  It was hard to get her to do any classwork after that.  

Here are some photos from her "class party."  The class mom made up goodie bags with items in them to play minute-to-win-it games over an online Zoom session.  She did agree to attend this class party, but usually she is not at all into Zoom.  Since this was a party, she also dressed up (in her Easter dress that she did not get to wear).  

The teacher gave out awards to all of the students.  Isabella got the "Rocking Reading" Award.  She lit up when her name was called.  I'm so glad she attended this class party call!!

The next day - there was a drive-by visit at the teacher's house.  Isabella got to see her teacher face-to-face and catch glimpses of classmates.  (And - there was a different dress for this occasion.  (which was also worn later for "ninja training" at home)

This last photo is of the "goodbye" Zoom on the actual last day, Friday.  This is more typical... Isabella has logged in, but she has disengaged and then walked away.  (Her photo is represented by an image of our painting in the dining room)  :( 

It was hard to get her to do the drive-by parade at her school later that day. 

The only saving grace is that we had library books that they asked people to drop off / return.   

Isabella had her window rolled up, but thankfully, her teacher saw in through Mercer's window... and as we drove by I heard "I love you, Isabella."  Awwww.  

Here's Coach G - he's actually our neighbor and we run into him around the neighborhood sometimes.

And the principal in yellow.   (The school colors are yellow and blue)

The nice thing about going to this... is that a lot of teachers recognized Mercer and were excited to see him.  He got a little last day "hoorah" too.  :) 

I had my final Zoom too - our last staff meeting.  Mercer had nothing. (All assignments were due no later than Thursday for grading.)    

Also, here's something funny that I have seen multiple times... a lot of parents are feeling this way.  I'm honestly glad school is over.... this chapter of juggling is over.  Whew!

Our church held a drive-by celebration for the college and high school graduates.  We did manage to get out of the house for that.  The only thing that motivated Isabella in attending this was that her favorite teenage twins were going to be there.  The girls drove by quickly.  They did see Isabella and they waved at her, although we didn't capture that exact moment on photo.  

It was fun to see their cut-outs in the car across from ours and talk with their mom for awhile.

She's a nurse.... and is exhausted.  I've heard several people talk about how the healthcare industry is losing a lot of money.... and she confirmed for our local healthcare system that this is true... people are NOT going to the doctor or to the hospital for general things.  (It is a business, after all.) 

This was our get-out-of-the-house "event" for the day!  Isabella wanted to wear another dress.  :)  We did not make posters like some did... we brought our New Year's Eve noisemakers and pom poms. 





The pastor's children ran up to each car as it drove by and gave the seniors some sort of memento.  

Across the country, there were all sorts of drive-by celebrations / virtual graduations / etc.  The class of 2020 certainly lost a lot of once in a lifetime opportunities, but people tried to make the best of it and make a big deal about things like prom, honor awards and graduations as much as they could.  

Celebrities and famous people would "pop in" on Zoom proms and give commencement speeches. 






We celebrated the last day of school with pizza and a movie... splurging on a new release rental - which is a new thing during this closure since people aren't going to movie theaters.  It's expensive, but not as much so as going to the theater.  The movie that BOTH kids agreed on (thank goodness!) was Scooby Doo.  

We had our "annual" water balloon fight on Saturday.  This seems to kick off the summer season for us.    (Mercer is such a funny guy -- offering a "target" for Isabella here.)

  


I had to put the camera down once Mercer noticed I was not in the game.  I got doused!  

I sat in line for a drive-through farmer's market for close to 2 hours!  This was in support of the local farmers -- who have been selling less fresh food than normal during closure.  




It's been a challenge to use a box full of veggies - but I'm working on it.  There was a pint of blueberries in there - which are easy, of course, to use.  I made a lemon blueberry icebox pie.  It took me 3 hours.  I told the guys that I would not be making another one... but Mercer has all but begged me to keep the recipe instead of tossing it.  (ugh) :)    What if I bought a key-lime pie already made and added the blueberry topping?  That may be a hack I need to try!  

The same day as the farmer's market - which happened to be the birthday for the former KMB director, Joan - I also went to a memorial service.  The very small service was at a historic cemeteries in Marietta.  There was a small socially-distanced "service" which was really just an informal sharing of stories and laughs.  (Plus some really raunchy jokes!) 

On arbor day, there will be an oak tree planted behind this plaque and a bench placed there on her next birthday as well.

It's getting warmer and starting to feel like summer.  We joined the pool.  (People are supposed to be socially distanced there too -- we are -- but there are several families who are not, unfortunately).  The chairs and tables are spread apart in clusters.  We're also going on lots of bike rides.  On Memorial Day, we went to a new "passive" park that we have not been to before. 

It was mostly a good ride, but it took us past the mall and eventually to a busy road where the bike trail was basically a sidewalk along the road.  The kids did GREAT following directions and crossing the streets with us at crosswalks.  We even stopped at the mall on our way back at Varsity Jr. for some refreshing FO's (Frosted Orange shakes) because we could not find a place to stop and eat our picnic lunch along the trail.  If we want a shorter ride (maybe only ride a couple of miles each way), we could check it out again... but we wouldn't recommend it for a long ride again.  

We were pretty socially distanced along this trail as well.  It was not too crowded and people did try to maintain a 6' separation when meeting on the trail.  The numbers in the state of Georgia, unfortunately, are going up again since the shelter-in-place was removed.  Georgia deaths have reached 2,000 now - which is a fraction, still, of NY and other parts of the north east.  

In the US, the number of deaths have reached 100,000.  Worldwide, the number of confirmed cases is over 6 million and world-wide deaths is almost 370,000.  New York is still the mecca of this crisis here in the US with almost 30,000 of the 100,000 deaths reported.   A critical trend on the John Hopkins' site shows that mortality rates in the US are lower than many countries compared to the number of reported cases.  (Our reported cases are supposedly too low as well - as numbers are reported as being skewed and we did not have tests for quite some time.  But interesting none-the-less to see this breakdown across the globe. 

Unfortunately, now, New York - and all cities across America - are being faced with something else that is a giant threat to people:  RACISM.