Corona Madness part 2

CET are 9 years and 7 months old!

CET are 9 years and 8 months old!

Flirting with danger, that cat will turn on you when you least expect it, ha!

Online school.
Don't let this picture fool you, "virtual school" ended up being a total joke!

Snuggle bums

TEC on a little nature adventure

A bit of French baking with Caleb

Where is my third child, those feet are too far
away to belong to either of those two boys?

Oh that explains things, haha!
Let me tell you, they all love to share the same bed and
most of the time I can't see where the third kid is!

Learning Virtually Nothing

We started online "virtual" school shortly after my last post back in late March. At the time I thought my attempts to home school were less than great but after going through almost two months of online school, which is mandatory by the way, I have to give myself more credit, ha! Two hours a day with the teacher and a few random assignments. None of the kids are doing the assignments because they are far too young for this type of learning. There is a huge disconnect between the teacher and the parents. I ask the kids what their assignments are and none of them know whats going on. Then there are so many different platforms for the assignments like Khan Academy, Raz Kids, Common Lit, Google Classrooms. There needs to be regular updates to the parents about what assignments need to be done and where so that we can enforce them. But at this point I'm thinking this year is a wash and what's the point in complaining to the teacher, she's probably more frazzled than I am. No one signed up for this. I wish I could just home school the boys by myself but of course I really couldn't have since it was mandatory they do the online version. Plus I'm back at work so I also don't have the time to do it...and don't get me started on the teacher furloughs...actually yes I will...

With two hours of instruction each day how much preparation and grading where the teachers really needing and doing? My guess is not much so they are probably really only working a fraction of 40 hours/week. Then they furloughed the teachers to 4/5 time, which sucks I totally get it, especially when you consider the insane backlog Oregon's employment office has. But instead of continuing with things the way they were they cut out Friday instruction! There is already so little learning going on and you go and cut out an entire day, so ridiculous! ...But then again everything is a mess, ugh!

I feel bad for kids with all this isolation. At least Phil and I get to keep busy with work, grocery shopping and cooking but the poor kids don't have a lot going on. I have them signed up for three weeks of private sports camps later this summer and I'm really hoping those don't get canceled but we shall see. 

Anyways, just venting here. We are trying hard to follow all the rules but it's just all around a crappy situation we all are in. On the bright side we are looking forward to camping soon like it was an international vacation, haha! 

Corona Madness

CET are exactly 9.5 years old!

Oh how the times have changed my friends! At the start of it I thought it was just like every other years epidemic, Ebola, SARS, Swine, Avian, West Nile etc. Never did I expect to be on "lock down" or "shelter in place" nor had I really ever heard those phrases before. The first big blow for us was when they announced that school was letting out a week before spring break. I thought ok I can deal with this but then soon after it was extended to May 1st (as if they'll even go back by then, I'm not holding my breath).

I was getting prepared to work evenings and weekends because of the whole school situation when I learned of another new term "modified operations," (I work for a hospital). And I guess there are different levels of modified operations, 1-4. Because I'm not as essential worker, at level 1 I was to curtail working as much as possible. If I can work from home I was to do that (I can do maybe 10% of my job from home). I was also not to start anything new so I could decrease my presence in our building. We had a week of this then we went to level 2, which meant to "shut everything down" that could be shut down and only keep going the most essential critical things (which amounts to a task that one person/day can handle, out of dozens of workers). Also we should expect to reach level 3 or 4 soon. The hospital has also been recruiting research assistants, like myself to help with COVID-19 testing which I volunteered to do if they want me. I'm on their list but not sure I'll be drafted but I'm ready, able and willing should they call!

Phil by the way has a very work-from-home friendly job (architect) so he's been home most days and only goes to the office one or two day a week. The kids have been good, I've been keeping them busy. Once I found out they'd be out of school indefinitely I came up with my own curriculum to keep their minds from deteriorating. We do a good 2-3 hours of hard work each day which includes mostly reading and writing assignments. We're also working on memorizing our times tables. I am not a teacher nor would I be a good one if I tried so I think this is sufficient for now. The kids seem challenged and haven't complained too much so I'm happy with that. I also make sure they do chores everyday and get outside as much as possible. The rain has been quite challenging.  

It was a rough start for myself, lots of bored over-eating and online impulse-shopping, the sales need to STOP!! My returns pile is out of control. I was able to over come both by reading the endless corona virus articles and watching the endless news updates, yes that's much healthier, ha! I also used to enjoy grocery shopping but a deep sense of dread flows over me every time I need to do it. I was not one of those crazed TP hoarders, which btw I just don't get? You can't eat toilet paper!!! You can always improvise or take a shower! If I had to choose to hoard anything it would be rice and beans, all else would be icing on the cake. Thankfully, I love a full pantry so I always have plenty of my Costco favorites but that only covers some of the basics like soap, peanut butter, fizzy water, rice, coffee, etc. I still need to do weekly shopping trips for our fresh produce, meats, milk, bread and the like. I never know what the grocery store will be out of and it's different every week which makes meal planning impossible! One week all out of meat/seafood/chicken and eggs. So the next week, I plan pasta-centric dinners and guess what they were all out of? Not one single box. 

Until next time, survive and take care!

First week of quarantine the weather was fantastic!
Then the rain came back with a vengeance : (

Home school : )

The boys are obsessed with the new show Lego Masters (a reality competition show, it's on Hulu). They watch each episode at least 10 times each. Before the show their giant Lego pile went mostly un-played with. Such a good hobby especially now that we have no where to go, ha!

They created a building being taken over by a giant spider,
I was impressed with everything that is going on here : )

Testing the strength of their Lego bridge (32 lbs)

Now some meme's that have made me laugh! If you obsessively scroll through your phone too then you've probably already seen these, haha!

Personalities 9.0

school pics taken October for 2019-2020

Caleb (yellow in pic)

Kid I would most like to snuggle. Caleb is definitely my son. We're cut out of the same cloth. We both tend towards inactivity, we laugh at the same stuff & jokes, we both LOVE to eat and we take our relaxing seriously! He says some funny things and he can be quite philosophical: 

"Pie (3.14...) is like the junior infinity" (sooo deep, ha!)

"Why is that smoker so big" (referring to a cigar)

"Look at that cool musky papi" (instead of Mustang)

"Could we get some rib?" (the boy likes ribs)

"Could we have a stand and sell stuff like rib?" (he continues to call it rib and not ribs and we refuse to correct him)
"Papi when did you get appertized?" (instead of baptized)

"Inside out burger" (In n out burger)

"How much big foots are in the world?"

"I saw a license plate from Jewish" (New Jersey maybe?)

Eli (blue in pic)

Kid I would most like to play a game with. He's a strict rule follower and if his brothers are not involved he is a good sport if he loses. Definitely his father's son, really athletic and into being the best he can be. He's a spokesman and negotiator. He says some funny stuff too: 

"We drew him with a smoker in his mouth" (instead of cigarette)

In the car we're all talking about McDonald's breakfast sandwiches...

Eli: "Is breakfast burger really good?"

Me: What do you mean, the chicken biscuit?"

Eli: "No is breakfast burger really good?"

Me: (silence)....
Phil: (silence)...

Eli: "On the Steelers!"

Me & Phil: "Oooh you mean Roethlisberger!"

Eli: "Yeah!"

Me: Why do you guys like sleeping in the same bed? Is it because you get cold at night?

Eli: It's because there's always SO much to talk about" (haha, they're only 9!)

Thomas (orange in pic)

Kid I would most like to craft with. The boy is very artistic, when he gets an idea in his head he doesn't stop until it's created, definitely his fathers son! Him and Eli are fierce competitors when it comes to athletics. A bit of a spaz too, it's so hard to get a good snuggle out of this kid cause you just might get wacked in the face, he won't sit still for very long. He's a man of little words so I haven't gotten too many recent funny sayings: 

"I like beef turkey" (instead of beef jerky)

Me: "Are you looking forward to the new year?"

Thomas: YES!

Me: "Wow so excited, why?"

Thomas: ....forlorn and looking down quietly sighs, "so many things" (had no idea he felt so deeply about 2020, ha!)

9yr 4 & 5mo!

CET are 9 years and 4 months old!

CET are 9 years and 5 months old!

SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were so so excited for the Superbowl and then so so heartbroken
when they lost [insert sobbing and tear wiping]!

Highly anticipating summer, can you guess what these pictures are for : )

Visited Sisters, Oregon
Three sisters in the background and three brothers in the foreground, haha!
Phil lost his drivers license, we ate terrible tacos but still managed to have a wonderful time.

How we spend most days!

The kids started and ended basketball. Was a fun season, the boys got better but also the competition! Here is a little video of Thomas, didn't get the shot but he has impressive moves : )

Xennial Troubles (9 yrs 2 & 3 mo!)

I'm quite behind on updating and I am fully prepared to outline the reasons that I lay blame on!

1. I've been happily using my Windows 7 dinosaur of a laptop for 8 years but if it wasn't totally packed to the gills I'd still be using it now. So guess what I got during Black Friday? Yes a lovely Windows 10 laptop that is half the price that my dinosaur once was and with twice the memory. This was quite the mountain to climb finding and installing all my old programs (or I guess they call them Apps now, even on computers!) to install. After several 30 minute sessions, because that's all the extra time I have daily, I had to buckle down and dedicate several hour blocks to really get back up to speed...so that took several weeks months of procrastination. 

2. Then I smashed my iPhone on the tile floor of my local TJMaxx. Like not one or two cracks through the screen but more like 100. I'd try to use it and would end up with shards of glass on my finger. I'd been meaning to get a new phone anyway so I did. I'd also been meaning to switch from iphone to android, eek! So for the last week I've been decoding my new phone, which has been more of a challenge for me because I use my phone for waaay more than I use my computer. Crazy right?!

I feel ashamed to be even complaining about this but I am as they call us a Xennial, meaning I had an analog childhood and a digital adulthood. So while we're not completely clueless like our parents are, technology doesn't come naturally to us as it does for true millennial's.

Anyways, now the blogging can continue...

CET are 9 years and 2 months old!

The boys are showing off their Black Friday scores. Caleb a legit skateboard, Eli a genuine leather football, and Thomas some weights. I'm quite proud of them because they've been saving up their money for over a year and bought themselves all their little hearts desired. Besides what's in the picture they got football receiver gloves, fitbit watches, and some other sports equipment. 

CET are 9 years and 3 months old!

3 times 3 equals 9! Took this shortly after they turned 9, ha : )

Family Pics 2019 (9yr 1mo!)

These are a long time coming! Our last professional pictures were taken way back in 2014 when the boys were just shy of 4 years old. I would have done them sooner but the boys lack of cooperation for photos was lacking so I've been afraid to try for years, ha! Well we finally reached a good age where I could fully bribe them with money to cooperate. I promised everyone a crispy ten dollar bill and in return I just want ONE good picture of us all. I was not disappointed! And in case you are looking for a very talented photographer in the Portland area I highly recommend our photographer (www.coffeeandlove.com), his Instagram handles are  @jrgdz  &  @coffeeand.love

CET are 9 years and 1 month old!

NINE!

CET are N.I.N.E. years old!!!

Obligatory couch photo : )

They can do tricks!

What To Expect When You're Having Nine Year Olds

I took the kids to their 9 year well check and they're as healthy as race horses and probably just as fast, haha! Caleb weighed in at 54.7 lbs and 49.85 inches tall. Eli was 53.1 lbs and 49.5 inches tall. And last but not least Thomas was 54.7 lbs and 49.65 inches tall. Our fall birthday is so convenient because we don't have to come back for our flu shots. The boys have always been champs at getting their vaccines. I believe the last time they cried from a shot they were 2 years old! 

As we were leaving the office the nurse walks over to me and hands me a paper and it's one of those developmental checklists or what to expect lists for 9 years old...Wait what?! I seriously haven't seen one of those since the boys were infants! After getting over the fact this actually existed I decided to read through it. To my surprise it describes them to a T! I'll share a few of them, so you as well know what to expect when your kido(s) turns 9, ha!

-Favors active, highly-charged  games and sports....boy do they ever, they've recently become obsessed, very obsessed with tackle football, oy!

-Wants to excel in sports and recreational skills...for sure! They loooove sports and competition. And they are also really into working out and you'll see them frequently doing pull ups, push ups and lifting dumbbells. They are such dudes and just like their dad!

-Has greater small muscle coordination and better dexterity...you wouldn't know this by their terrible handwriting, haha! But I gotta say they can give a great neck & shoulder massage (I pay them in cookies, teehee!).

-Becomes more interested in clothing and appearance...yup, I have very little say on what they wear these days : ( Thank goodness for vacations when I do the packing therefore I do the picking, hehe : )

-Laughs at bathroom humor...they excel at this one!

-Tends to be critical of self...Caleb is showing signs of this when he's having trouble with homework. I was really getting worried about him but glad to know it's normal. The other two boys are less than humble when it comes to admitting they can't do something, ha!

-Wants to talk, dress, and act just like friends...oh yes more than ever, and sadly their friends (plus 90% of the boys at school) all dress in athletic wear, ugh, so tacky and over done! Lets not get too comfortable people, what's next pajamas! Sorry not a fan of the look.

-Is involved in informal clubs and small groups of the same sex...Check! Since the school year started the boys have been talking about their recess "football team" and they even made themselves buttons to wear that say 'football,' ha!

-Starts to just sit and talk with friends...I think multiples start this one way sooner because they've been doing this with their brothers for years now. 

-Uses reference books with increasing skill...to my surprise one of the boys told me last week that they used a dictionary at school. 

-Gets immersed in a hobby or project, then drops it for another...Oh yeah!

-May be a perfectionist...by their frequent freak outs, I'd say yes. 

-Generally follows instructions...I guess when they want to yes. 

-Is highly concerned about fairness...Another one that multiples are advanced in. I'd say this one started for us the day they were born, ha!

Caleb
These remind me of a video game : )

Eli

Thomas