Homeschool

Because of all of the unrest and unknown about schooling before we even ended last school year, I decided to talk with my youngest three about possibly doing K12.  I'd done it with both Keilie and Caden and loved it.  If there was even a small chance that we'd have to do some sort of at-home schooling, I wanted it to be with a program that already does at-home schooling.  The kids, having just had a hard few weeks trying to get everything done before the end of the year, heartily agreed.  Keilie, though, wanted to stay at Richland High, in hopes that they'd be able to do some sort of in-person for her Senior year.  Sadly, we found out today that they were going to open all schools in the Fall as at-home.

I did, however, get our "school room" updated for the incoming boxes of all-year curriculum that is headed our way for three kids in just a few weeks.

I love how it finishes off the space so well, and that the kids will be able to hide more from view.  Well, I hope so at least, since they seem to have a hard time hanging their coats and backpacks on hooks and placing their shoes in a basket.  Bless.

I am looking forward to working with my kids using the K12 program, and hope that we can all make it through this next school year unscathed.  Mostly, I hope that Keilie can have some form of Senior year.  I hope that this decision the school board made-- a decision that one of the people I voted for and love was against, wanting to offer both teachers and parents options if they felt safe sending kids to school-- isn't set in stone for the entire year, just the first half.  Keilie was praying for at least two days in-person, not really caring if the other days were what she had to endure at the end of last year.  She just wants to be with her friends this last year!!!  As we have already been exposed, I would have sent her to school, no worries whatsoever!

Nameplate

While at the church for an appointment with Keilie yesterday, I remembered that we'd been told we could take Caden's nameplate, since the church is doing away with this type of display, wanting to focus more on displaying pictures of the Savior instead.  I'm not 100% sure what we'll do with it, but I do want it to be something special since he cared so much about becoming an Eagle Scout.

Sure do love my boy.  He is terribly missed.

Hired

Keilie got a call today at 4:00pm, letting her know she'd been hired for her first official job at Dairy Queen!  We drove to her location, even though we have one not two minutes from our home, and had dinner and Blizzards to celebrate!

CONGRATULATIONS, KEILIE!!!!!

Concerned?!

Should I be concerned?  I caught him holding hands with another female while watching a show!  Cuties.

IKEA 2020

Jamie and I left at 3:00pm on Friday for a trip to IKEA.  She's moving into her new home in just over a week and needed new things in her new home.  I didn't realize that we are equal-distanced between Portland and Seattle IKEAs!  We've been to both now:)

We arrived in time for dinner, which we got to eat inside Red Robin.  We had to wear our mask to enter, exit, and any time we were away from our table.  Without our masks, while ordering and eating, it felt almost normal.  We watched a couple episodes of Impractical Jokers and got to bed early for our shopping excursion.

We arrived by 9:20am for the 10:00am opening.  Good thing too, since there was a line wrapped around three sides by the time it opened.  It was much longer than it seemed since we all had to stand 6' apart, but it was still a line simply to enter the store.

Loading this stuff, first onto the carts inside and then into her truck, was truly difficult.  Not because it weight nearly 1,000 pounds, but because we had to wear masks.  I was a sweat-ball mess when we were done.  And let me just say, I am the worst when it comes to pushing those carts with their caster wheels that send the cart in the exact opposite way I wanted, and nearly had me slamming into people and aisles and displays!  I wasn't too sad about the mask when it hid most of my face in shame.

An entire truck bed full of boxes, two of which were mine.  It's even strapped down!!  We're pretty awesome if I do say so myself.  Cameron was blown away that we didn't listen to music at all.  Six hours was barely enough time to talk about all that we've bottled up during this quarantine!  I am so glad we had time away from our kids, so we could talk about anything and everything as we took time for ourselves doing what we both love to do-- making our homes comfortable and beautiful for those we love most.

Summer Fun

Shelby and Tyson had an orthodontic appointment this morning.  Dr. Porter asked the normal question: What have you been doing this summer?

Shelby: We went to Utah, Wyoming, and I spent time at my cousin's without any of my siblings there.

Tyson: Video Games

Typical little 10-year old boy.  No vacations, no boating adventures, no Covid competition.  Video Games.  Awesome!

Bathroom

With our bathroom painted, we found ourselves with many gallons of extra paint, so we're making our way around all of the bathrooms and laundry with the special "bathroom recommended," paint (even though I have a chocolate brown "formal dining" that has been begging to be painted since the day we moved it).

We found this little gem when Randy removed the MASSIVE medicine cabinet (that made it so you couldn't use the plug-in, so Keilie had to use her blowdryer in her room) and lights.  I cannot imagine this tiny bathroom painted in such a bright blue, especially since there isn't a spec of natural light in here.  Even the cream felt too dark.  YIKES!!!

 It's funny, but I've never noticed how yellow our doors and trim were until we brought out the Ultra White.  Just one more way I'll have evidence that we made this home better.

I love this view of the light, bright gray next to the dark cream of the rest of the house.  Our painter is on standby.  Well, we're the ones on standby.  When they have days where it is too hot or too windy, they know they can call us to come work on our entire house.  It will be nice to finally have this home feeling a bit more bright and modern, even if it takes a whole year to finish with them coming whenever they can. 

Mira was such a help guarding the medicine cabinet for us.  Cutie!

**We were going to replace the toilet and found that the home builder only put the rough-in 8" from the wall instead of the normal 12".  We literally couldn't find a toilet that would work.  We'd have to rip out the floor and do some plumbing work if we wanted to.  For now, we'll keep the toilet.  I'm not ready for that kind of work quite yet...

Enjoy the Show

I drove to Ashlee's house today to pick up Shelby.  Not wanting to drive there and back in one day, I decided to make a night of it.  How happy I am that I did!  Russ set up an outdoor movie night and asked Aria to make tickets for our entry to a whole new world.

 Notice the sign in the background.  "Please enjoy the show."  We each came to the show with a ticket in hand just like she's holding.  Can you get any cuter?!

Shelby hadn't seen Trolls World Tour yet, so it was the perfect night for her.  We had such a fun time!!  I wish we lived closer to family all the time, especially when fun things like this makes such great memories!!

Remember

I started a new post on Monday all about our trip to Casper June 22-23.  Before I'd even finished half of it, I had to turn off the computer and go lie down because I was so emotionally exhausted from 3 hours of blogging.  We may be coming up on three years since Caden's death, but I am still not strong when it comes to writing deep, special, memorable, raw things.  I want to write as much as I can about all that we felt there, how it felt to be back, how it felt to leave, how it felt to remember so vividly our happiness in that beautiful place before cancer was even a thought in our lives.  We were SO HAPPY there, and I can't convey enough how much that place means to me.  So I stopped for a few days because it hurts too much, the remembering of happy times as a whole entire family.  I am so behind on so many fun things that we've done this past month, but I'm caught up in a place of my heart that is killing me softly each time I think about Casper.  I miss my Caden so much I can't breathe still.  It is still so, so surreal that he died.  My heart feels as if it is being impaled with a red-hot rod of iron tonight.  I wonder, truly, if I'll ever feel strong again.

Do it again?

Ashlee and Russ asked if they could spend a day or two with us on their way home from Utah.  Obviously, we jumped at the chance.  I'm ever so glad that we did because one day on the river turned into two.

Randy told me he'd like to find a beach along the river, but I argued that we'd want the shaded table and nearby bathroom, so we'd probably better go to the place we already know and love.  Upon arriving we found they'd taken the docks!  Turns out, Randy left half of us on the shore while he and Russ scouted out a beach along the river like he'd wanted all along.  I'm so glad we did because it produced the best time we've EVER had on the river!

We weren't prepared with a shade since we thought we'd be at our table, but the sandy river bottom that extended far and wide made up for it.  We never had to worry about Aria or Everly walking out too far because it never really dropped off until they were much too far.  Jamie let us borrow one of their kayaks and child paddle boards, so we had plenty to occupy those left on the beach while the others were on the boat.  We played for more hours than we'd planned for, and then made plans to do it again, better prepared, the next day.  SO MUCH FUN!!!

Enjoying their lunch.

Brennon ended up getting stung by a wasp.  Poor kid.  Shelby took a picture of it to show him because it was on his back.  He said it stung for a long time, to which Daphnee agreed because she'd been stung the day before.  The only thing that detracted from our two days of fun.

Aria and I made a sandcastle.  Aria being Aria-- she asked me more than once if I would and then spent maybe three minutes helping me.  I had to giggle.  Caden used to giggle at her antics, too.  She is so excited to have someone do something with her, she then realizes she wants to do it all with you:)

As we were drying off the boat, Randy mentioned that he'd noticed a lot of oils in the water when he was loading everything up.  Turns out, our boat was hemorrhaging.  Sad that our two days could not turn into three days...

The sunset struck me so beautiful.  We live in such a beautiful place.  I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

As we pulled up to drop off Jamie's river toys, the guy across the street alerted us to a serious problem-- our trim was down.  Had we hit a large bump or gone over a speed hump, we would have scraped our rudder along the road, possibly causing some serious damage.  Honestly, I don't know how we made it the entire 40 minutes!  Our hemorrhage had drained all of the hydraulic fluid, our trim couldn't be lifted without help.  Not to worry, Randy always has straps in our car for emergencies.  Our boat will be out of commission for a few weeks, at which time I plan to invite many to our spot.  I love our boat!

Factoid

While playing Cranium with the kids today for our Covid Competition, this came up.

I found it VERY interesting!!!

 

Independence Day 2020

 We made it home from Utah on the same day that Ashlee made it down to our house on their way down to Utah.  We did, however, get to spend Independence Day with them!

Morning run, Badminton, Pickle Ball, Swimming, BBQ and Fireworks all crammed into one day= BEST WAY TO SPEND A DAY!!!

Per the norm, Mira was a mess.  She does not like booming sounds, so she tried to push her way between our fun pictures (Everly and Aria thought they were so funny placing us in "jail") to get to me.

We needed up taking her on a drive, hoping it would get her mind off of it.  Nope.  She tried to climb into our laps.

"Look, Aunt Steph, I'm a mermaid!"

We LOVE spending time with family.  I do wish we could have all spent time together in Utah, but it couldn't be helped.  Good thing we already have a cabin reserved and paid for in Montana for next summer's Burrell Family Reunion!

Fun with Burrell's

 I love the memories we're making with both sides of our family.  It truly is nice to be able to plan and actually attend things now without worrying if cancer care or sickness would keep us home.  I miss Caden, absolutely, but it is nice not to worry about cancer care anymore.

Scripture reading

Audrey did her own makeup to look like Simba.  She gifted me time with her precious headband.  I'm so lucky!

One of the fads in Utah right now is Sugar Cookies.  We decided to try some that had been recommended to us to decide which is our favorite.  We purchased a dozen and cut them up into nibbles for all (minus my mom, who sadly has diabetes).  We loved it so much, we went back again the next day to try a few different ones.  YUM!

Audrey asking if she could feel Grandma's Ding-Dings.

Drew pointing out things to Grandma-Great Fuller.

Drew taking Mira for a walk  

Drew shares a special bond with my Dad.  I love it!

Kids playing The Game of Life

Adults playing Witts and Wagers

My Dad invited Randy to go out with him on a friend's boat.  While they were away...

The kids and I watched The Jungle Book (1994 live-action version) and Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, both movies of my childhood.  They balked a little when they heard the titles, but all agreed that they loved them both.  

I was born into the best family in the world, and married into a family that ties for first.  I'm the luckiest girl in the world.