February Milestones

I'll start with Covid and get it out of the way.  The US hit a (bad) milestone in February.... over 500,000 (half a million) people have died of Covid.

Vaccines ARE rolling out (although slowly).  My mom has gotten her 2 vaccines. Todd's mom has gotten 1 of them so far.  I scheduled to get a vaccine in Alabama in early March because Georgia is really really (really) slow to get teachers in line for the vaccine.  There was a surge after the Christmas Holidays that seems to be decreasing a bit.

Mars Perseverance landed.  This mission is supposed to be more robust than the Mars Curiosity Mission that began 9 years ago.  It will have better imagery, will be able to navigate farther each day and it has microphones and drilling equipment aboard.  The possibilities are exciting about what this rover will discover!

And, Mercer turned 13!  We now have a teenager in the house.  Eek.   He keeps talking about "what is 2 years from now?"  (He's referring to starting to drive a car!)  DOUBLE Eek.  

Here are photos pulled from each birthday (or within a few days +/- of his past birthdays)

1st birthday - frog birthday theme

2nd birthday - animal birthday theme

3rd birthday

 

 close to 4th birthday

5th birthday - LEGO party

6th birthday was a pirate theme, but I think he did something else here in this photo where he dressed up again!

Close to 7th birthday - dinner at Peace Love Pizza

8th birthday

(party was at Andretti with a few friends the previous weekend, but had to share the measurement on the wall instead)

9th birthday

A couple of days before 10th birthday.... in Colorado.

Also in Colorado... on his actual birthday.  This is the same shirt as the year before amazingly!  :) 

He looks so different from the other photo / had to include both.

11.  His actual birthday was a small bey-blade party with a few friends (we didn't want him to think we weren't doing anything), but the real present was a Disney reveal... that we packed and left for the next day!  (Here he is with his icon - Goofy!)  ha!

12.  He had a one-friend celebration at a Monster-truck event... but we had to measure him on the wall, of course.  (This seems to be the highlight of the kids' day -- when we officially take their new measurement!)

A couple days before 13.  We had a party for him at the historic Strand theater.... 15 people cap.  Masks required.  

Name on the marquis.  No smile though.  

One word "teenager."

Here are more pictures from his party.  There were several friends from baseball, a couple of friends from school and one from church.  There were a few siblings there as well.  Inside the theater while eating the concession food that was provided as a part of the package... you could take off masks.  

They asked that you socially distance inside, but didn't mandate where people sat.  It was a little unusual to sit so spread out in a theater, but it went well.  (Isabella did sit with a friend though they seemed to keep their masks on and would shove popcorn up under or the straw from the drink.  ha!  I sat near her across the aisle.)  

Mercer chose the movie:  Detective Pikachu. 

 

The kids didn't have cupcakes.... instead, there was a take-away bag of pre-wrapped Japanese treats such as cakes, candies and savory snacks.  And - some Pikachu info including his Japanese roots.  

It was different, but hopefully memorable!

On his actual birthday, he asked for pizza from Peace Love Pizza.  He had cupcakes from Peace Love Sweets - as it turned out!  (total coincidence)   

His gifts (from us) consisted of tee shirts -- one was a practical joke about etiquette school... one had a little bit of a practical joke in it about a Beet wearing Beats (there was a can of beets in the box + some gaming headphones too.... but NOT Beats brand!)... and a Japanese Pikachu tee + comic book and bubble tea to complete the theme.   He got giftcards from friends a new watch, a foosball set and a little bit o' money (like bit o' honey.... ha!)  

He even had cupcakes with Grandma in NJ who face-time called M that evening.  Uncle Jim dialed in too.  

And - of course - there's the annual marking-of-the-wall....

All-in-all, we think he had a good "MILESTONE" birthday!

Here are some other things from this month:  

Isabella enjoying her "birthday" gift that came from Grandma in NC so Isabella would have something to unwrap with Mercer...

Drawings that Isabella has made lately - 

She's been on a bird kick.  :)  

And heart drawings for Valentine's Day.  

Even though it says Love you mom and dad.... we all know who she loves the most....

Notice that mne and Mercer's percentages were scratched out after we protested.  She bumped us up to 99%.  

D is Dad.  Mom.  Me is Mercer.  H is Hip Hop.  L is Lizzy.  C is for the Hermit Crabs.  F is for the fish. 

Mercer (under Todd's guidance) worked on a pretty impressive self-portrait for his art class!!  

LOVE THIS!!

Todd worked hard on making a Valentine's Day dinner (ham and mushroom crepes with chocolate and raspberry crepes for dessert)   He let me work on my teaching classwork which is due in a couple of weeks!

We had winter break and did NOTHING exciting (except for M's theater party).  The kids literally played on computer games the entire week while I worked on my teaching classwork.  I CAN NOT WAIT FOR THAT TO BE DONE.  

A random shot of his size 14 kicks... (which is actually from January, but forgot to post...)

and a wrap-up with 

More pictures with the dog this month...

Her happy place - inside a crate with the dog?  

(well, Hip-Hop DID get 100% on the love-meter at first....) 

Whew.... January was, well, rough.

The new year has not been off to a great start.  It's been pretty hard - honestly.

We had the riots in early January at the Capitol.  

The next day, my mentor & colleague's daughter died from MIS-C... unknown infection was causing inflammation in her body and she could not overcome.  It has caused a lot of grief within our school -- for a staff member's child to pass, but also she was a freshman at our school.  Her classmates and her teachers also were grieving.  The school had counseling sessions and a reception for her after the funeral.  In our department, we were asked to help out at the reception.  I've been covering his two "Architecture 2" classes for the past few weeks.  He's scheduled to be back in early February.

Also, a friend of my mom's passed away this month:  Farrar.  She had some heart issues that she was being treated for, but unfortunately did not survive.  My mom was recovering from surgery and could not go see her while she was in the hospital... plus Covid restrictions would have prevented her from going to see her (almost) life-long friend.  Farrar had been a part of my mom's life pretty much ever since I can remember.  

Although I no longer work in the Cobb school district, I am still very much following what is happening - as we live in Cobb and I have a lot of friends who work there.  Two more teachers passed away from Covid this month.  They have had 3 die... they have a superintendent who does not support the teachers as well as several board members.  They are protesting and want most of the board + the superintendent to be fired.  I am really grateful to be where I am now.  We are neighboring school districts, but it feels like we're a world apart.   

(In Cobb, there have been over 50,000 cases and 700 deaths as of the end of the month.)  What was scary to watch was the hospitalization rate... especially thinking about ANYONE ELSE who has a life-threatening emergency not being able to get hospital care because the hospitals have been full.  

In Georgia, the Covid death toll from this virus is over 14,000.  Nationally, it is close to 440,000.  World-wide, the death toll is over 2.2 million.

A former colleague is making "super teacher" masks in honor of the 1st teacher to pass away and is selling them. Mine is blue & white - my school district's colors... the hundreds that she made were red & black -- their school district's colors.  She has collected almost $3,000 in donations to send to the three families.  

I should also mention that Hammering Hank Aaron passed this month as well.  He gets a mention here because Todd and Mercer have talked a lot about how significant his achievements were (and Mercer did a report on him for school once because he admired Hank).... but he was also a "hometown" hero here in Atlanta.

It's been a sad, sad month.

We did not hold soup night like we normally do.  But - we still made soup each weekend and reminisced about soup nights in years past.  I did share some soup with a neighbor.  Does that count?   We had the usual (tomato basil, chicken& black bean and french onion) + Isabella's favorite - broccoli cheddar which we actually made 2x.  

Onto a positive note:

I reported on the last blog entry that history was made January 6th for the Capitol being stormed.  History was made again on January 20th:  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as President and Vice President of the US.   

Harris is the first woman to be elected as VP.  She is also the first part black / part Indian to be elected into that position too!  For girls everywhere -- this is HUGE.  

(And - of note - her 1st duty as VP was to swear in the two historic senators from our state of Georgia.)  

This shirt was made for Isabella by the same former colleague who made the masks mentioned above.  This photo was taken in November while we were in Edisto, but it is appropriate now.

-

I watched the historic moment of Kamala being sworn in at school during my short lunch break.  I showed it to the handful of students that were in my room that had just come back after lunch too.  And we watched it -- as well as the performers and the young poet laureate -- as a family once we were all home.  We had a "red, white, and blue (and green)" dinner:  spaghetti with red sauce (+ salad), blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream.  

It wasn't too fancy, but we did 2 things to make it more special:  we brought out the china AND we sat around the coffee table, put the dog away and ate dinner in front of the TV - which we only do on an occasional family movie night.   

This is a much nicer image of the Capitol than what we saw just two weeks prior.  whew!

We are hopeful that things will improve in 2021 !!!

In terms of anything that we did... it was all thanks to Uncle Jim & Aunt Becki.  They sent $ to go out to eat for both of the kids -- They got to choose what they wanted to eat / where we went.  (well, we got take-out... we didn't actually go anywhere.)  But - he's pretty politically-correct like that... wear your masks... support local restaurants. 

For Mercer, he chose sushi.  We honestly had not had it in a year since the pandemic started.  

We coupled it with a family game night -- Mexican Train -- that he didn't really enjoy, but Isabella loved it.

For Isabella, the only thing she asked for was mac-and-cheese (of course).  We don't make it often, but it's her favorite and we actually bought the "blue box" instead of the organic variety.  (She does not like real mac-and-cheese... restaurant style.  So - with the $ he sent for her... she had a lot left over!)  She also asked to go to a light show.... in January.  

Well, as luck would have it, the light show near us extended their drive-through light show into the new year... so we did that followed by a quick visit to "Insomnia Cookies" for a treat of fresh-baked cookies and hot cocoa after the light show.  

Even though we did not really support a local restaurant for a full meal (only dessert) -- he approved and loved that she crafted the perfect evening that was all hers!

Almost forgot:  after 6 years, I got a "real" haircut.  (I had to take Mercer b/c baseball is starting and he has to wear a cap as a part of the uniform.)  

So - I decided if HE'S getting a real haircut at a salon, so was I. The lady blew it out with a big brush and basically straightened it out.  I liked it, but.... a lot of work that won't happen before I leave the house at 6:45 each morning.   the FIRST thing I noticed and then the FIRST thing Mercer noticed:  when it's straight - how much gray hair I really have that you can't see when it's curly!  

With the brighter light at the salon, it looks like I have way more than it did (thankfully) when I got home.    I hope I don't wait another 6 years for a real haircut!  

I should work on the weekends to wash and blow it out / style it like the hairdresser did... but....  

Well, we'll see! 

Mercer said his teacher almost didn't know who he was!  

Check out this "before" photo..... just the week before.  

(The kids want LOTS of photos with the dog, so I was able to catch his before cut hair-do.)

And.... I'll close with extra photos of the kids and the dog.

Isabella was playing with the camera.

Meanwhile, Mercer and I were making a "bionic" hand for his science class project.   (Lucky for him - I had done this project several times at my previous school in my STEM class.)  :)