Released

 

Mark got released as Bishop on Sunday (March 28).  It feels good. We both spoke briefly at church and the three of us were happy to have Mark come sit with us after he was released.  Scott Guengerich is the new Bishop and he is such a tender hearted, all in kind of guy.  He will do great things for the Rapidan ward. Mark said it reminded him of being released from his mission.  We have received a few emails from ward members thanking him /us and commenting on what a wonderful job he did.  Next week is conference but it will be great to have Mark all to ourselves for a regular sabbath day after that.  It will be a good adjustment to make. 

Saint Patrick's Day

 I'm not sure what Saint Patrick's Day will look like next year in Egypt. Jared and Lydia love celebrating this day.  Leprechauns are very real to them.  Since we don't do Santa Claus at Christmas I think this is the next best thing for them. Each year a "leprechaun" comes and messes up our house. Furniture is moved around, pictures are turned upside down and a treat is left for them.  We are visited by very mischievous but harmless leprechauns. Some years they make leprechaun traps and other years they make rest stops. This year they wanted to sleep in the basement because in previous years that is where they set up their traps/rest stops so they associate the chance to catch a leprechaun with the basement.  Last night after dinner they made a huge fort to sleep in and stayed down there even though they did not make traps or rest stops. 

They woke up to an obstacle course which led them to a little guessing game for their treat. (Skittles this year).  Their stuffed animals were mixed up and there were Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops for breakfast. Then Lydia and Mark left for school and Jared and I worked here at home.  After I finished working at noon Jared and I headed over to a friends house for a fun Saint Patrick's day gathering. Everyone brought rainbow/leprechaun themed food and the family planned a cute scavenger hunt. 

 Once we picked Lydia up from school we made a rainbow themed snack and then Jared discovered a green clue on our picture board.  It contained a riddle that said " What is said to be at the end of a rainbow?  Go find a rainbow and see if its true."   Lydia had recently commented that the rainbow from her reading nook was missing and she wondered if the leprechaun had stolen it.  They looked all over our house, missed the rainbow the first time and then found it the second time around. 

Sprite and Lime sherbet.  We will see if lime sherbet is a thing in Cairo.Shar e

 

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Pi day

 Last year we planned to celebrate Pi day with two family friends.  We ended up canceling as that was the first weekend that states really began shutting down.  Looking back I am pretty sure we could have safely celebrated together but we followed the rules. The four of us still had pie and it was still delicious.  This year we invited one family over for pie and games Sunday afternoon. They brought a key lime pie over and I made a triple berry pie and Lydia made a frozen yogurt pie. They were all beautiful and delicious.

Notice the selection of holiday plates I put out?  Autumn, Thanksgiving, New Years and Lydia's birthday. No need to buy new ones as we had leftovers from plenty of past holidays with just the 4 of us. 

After visiting a bit and the kids goofing off for a bit we played a few rounds of Pie Face, so perfect for Pi day and Telestrations which is way more fun with more people. I had played it with Jared and Lydia the Sunday before and it was fine but these rounds were quite silly. It was a fun afternoon together.  It really felt like a normal weekend. Were looking forward to finishing off our weekends here in Charlottesville as safely as possible with friends and adventures.

Richmond

Saturday we drove down to Richmond to cheer Mark on as he ran a half marathon at a park in Richmond.  This was his first half marathon on a course with other runners. They had most of the elements of a race just people could start whenever they wanted.  He started running right around 8:30 and had a really good race.  He placed 49/372 and 6/20 in his age group.  He ran around an 8.25 pace which is crazy to me.  He is really good at running and is quickly becoming addicted to running races, especially the idea of destination races.  I still feel sad that I did not get to run my half marathon in Budapest last year.  I planned to run a half marathon in Charleston in January when we went but ended up not being able to because of my tendonitis but Mark did and loved it.  I am a bit jealous of his running and the places he talks about running races. Yesterday I went running for the first time since the Tuesday before Christmas when my injury started.  I ran 2 miles and my foot felt fine during and after.  It was a little tender today, and I am surprisingly sore but I am glad I tried running again. I will still baby it but hopefully I can do short runs twice a week.  Mark really enjoyed his race and I am sure he will do many more. The race was at Dorey Park and Jared and Lydia had a blast playing on the playground while Mark ran.  We haven't played on a playground since late Fall and this one was really fun. 

It took them a good while to figure out how to walk on this but once they did they did not want to stop. 

This was a lot harder then he thought it would be the first time around. 
The second time he got up there pretty quick. 

This was a pretty cool climbing feature.

We picked up waffles after his run and then headed over to the Richmond Temple for a "tour" presentation with the senior missionaries serving there.  It was a nice presentation and nice to see the how the temple is progressing.  The temple should be finished late spring of 2022 so we really hope when we come back next Summer the open house will be happening. 

This is the back of the temple, where the Monticello Dome will be.  The Baptism is on this side as well.

View from front where they fancy porch will be.

I really love the design the planned for the Richmond temple. It fits the area so well. 

We are still staying pretty close to home and taking the proper precautions but it sure felt good to be out doing something on a Saturday! Friday night we had one family over for a campfire dinner which was really nice as well.  The weather was perfect for it. I am glad the weather is becoming more Spring like so there are more options that feel safe for getting together and just going places in general.

These boys had a blast shooting their BB guns together Friday evening. They thought shooting in the dark was the coolest ever and we do have a great set up for it.  I still find it hard to believe that a child of mine has a gun in any form but Jared has proven himself to be very responsible with it.  Even though its silly I feel better that he bought it with his own money, like it adds a layer of distance between me and it.  He would really like to take it to Egypt but I am not sure how that will play out. 

Back to School in person (one year later)

Our school district has now moved to stage 4 which means Lydia is in school 4 days a week and Jared can now attend 2 days a week. This new set up started last Wednesday and Thursday almost exactly one year since everyone was sent home.  Jared stayed with Mr. Gomez and attends Tuesday and Thursday and Lydia stayed with Ms. Stern and is there Monday-Thursday.  Originally Lydia was moved back to Ms. Shifflett's class and I didn't feel good about it.  I contacted the administration to see if there was any way she could stay with her current teacher and a spot opened up.  I am not sure if I should have made a fuss about it as her closest friend from Ms. Stern's class did move to the other class and Ms. Shifflett's class has recess with Ms. Sanford's class and her other really good school friend is in Ms. Stanford's class so she doesn't get to play with either of them at recess but its done.  They do see each other when they eat snack and recess so that is nice. I do feel Ms. Stern is a better fit for Lydia's learning style and personality and she is happy to be there but what a crazy year. 
Jared is so happy to have a chance to go to school. Last night he and Mark filled out their brackets for March Madness.  Jared took his to school today to show his teacher and before he showed him his teacher brought it up and mentioned that the 5th grade teachers and Mr. Charles (the awesome head janitor) were all competing with each other.  Mr. Gomez told his class that any of them were welcome to participate and Jared raised his hand and showed him his bracket.  It was just funny that he had it at school with him.  He has been so happy with Mr. Gomez which has been great to see.  Recess is weird for him too as his closest school friends are not attending in person so he is kind of lost as to who to interact with.  I feel for them both. If he wanted to he could play with other kids but so far he has just shot baskets by himself. 
 Picking them up from school takes so long now that there are so many more kids at school.  I can't decide if I should go early and sit in the car for 40 - 45 minutes or leave my house at 2:30 and not wait in the crazy line.  If I go early then Jared and Lydia don't have to wait long but its not like we have anything we are rushing to get too. At the same time I am done working by noon and most things I need to do I can do whether they are home or not so its not like I need all that time at home. Today I left my house at 2:20 (dismissal is 2:25) and still waited in line 20 minutes. Maybe tomorrow I will leave at 2:10 and see if it gives us a good split.  It's just long whatever I choose.  Today the first things they said to me in the car was that they couldn't believe I made them wait 25 minutes to be picked up.  I did not take it well.  I quickly commented that maybe they should say "hello, or how was your day, or thanks for picking us up" before they complained about a wait when I have been waiting even longer than they have. It was a quiet ride home after that.  So once we got home, before we got out of the car I had them apologize, and try again.  I'm just really glad its March and we are as close to finishing this year as we are. I do not feel that homeschooling Jared and Lydia or keeping them virtual would have been better.  It is good for them to be at school, it just has not been the best way to end our time at a school we have been very happy with.

Biking (happy and annoying stories)

 I was able to go biking with friends three times in the last week or so.  Its a pretty great social distancing activity.  One day we did a loop out near Free Union and had great weather. Two days later we biked from my house down away from Chris Green Lake and yesterday we biked around Chris Greene and UVA Research Park. The last ride we did was freezing!  We looked at the weather the night before and it said 30 degrees which is cold but fine.  When I checked it the next morning it said 28 feels like 22.  I texted her and confirmed going before I checked the weather, brrrrr. It was so cold but we have plenty of hills around here to warm us up.  I really enjoy it and was happy we could meet to go. 

Wesley Chapel Loop

April, Laura and Jaclyn 

Soon it will be all green! 

Jaclyn and April 

Spring Hill/Dickerson

Chris Greene/ UVA Research Park 

Biking Story: 

 Last week we met up with friends to bike at the church.  As we were leaving I suggested to this friend that maybe our boys would like to ride their bikes to our house together?  She and I would drive ahead, park at different spots and sort of leap frog each other so we could keep an eye on them to make sure they were safe and didn't need anything.  The boys were on board and we started out.  From the church to our house is 2 miles.  This road does not have a bike lane but it also doesn't have a lot of traffic and we both felt the boys would be safe and we would be following along to make sure everything was fine.  Everything went well until a concerned citizen decided they should not be riding their bikes on the road.  She turns her hazard lights on and starts following them.  About 3 cars back up behind her.  Two turn onto the first street so its just her, one car, me and my friend all in a row.  The second car gets increasingly irritated at her driving so slow that he swerves around her and speeds off.  She gets even closer to the boys.  We reach our driveway and she pulls into our cutout at the top as the boys pull into driveway and I pull into driveway after them. 
She gets out of her car and comes down to give me a piece of her mind.  She can not believe that I let these boys ride their bikes on that street. I cannot believe that she felt the need to get out of her car and lecture me for 5 minutes about my parenting choices.  I can't believe I let her.  Why didn't I tell the boys to go down to back deck and get away from her? They didn't need to hear her. Why didn't I stick up for them more?  Why didn't I tell her to leave?  It was particularly frustrating because my friend and I made a safety plan.  We knew they boys could do it and wanted them to go on a fun independent ride, somewhere besides a parking lot and she made it much more unsafe.  If she had not been following them so closely the car would not have swerved around them.  It would have safely passed them.  A lot of bikers bike on this section of our street. She said that the last one was swerving into the road too much.  He was (and very little from what I saw) because he was nervous that a car was following him so closely.   I don't know how many times I tired to talk about the plan my friend and I (the parents) had come up with and that I knew she (this stranger in my driveway) was just concerned about their safety but I felt like I didn't get a chance to talk at all.  I knew I wasn't going to change her mind and she was not going to change mine.  It was a classic moment of me not being assertive enough and thinking of the right things to say in the moment. I have spent plenty of time thinking about it since then. After she finally left, we checked in with the boys.  We made sure they knew they did nothing wrong and let them talk about how they felt.  It was so frustrating that it ended this way.  Is it the best road to ride a bike on? No.  I tried to put myself in her spot and I know I would not have felt the need to address the parent. I may have followed them to see if they made it somewhere safe but I honestly don't think I would have done that and I know I would not have felt the need to lecture anyone's parent about it.  If the boys were in the middle of the road or goofing off I would have felt more compelled but they were being very safe.  They did everything right.  Later that evening I texted my friend because I felt so bad about it and she said. " The boys are fine and I would do it again." My kind of people.  A she left she made the comment, "shows what is wrong with our world, that three boys can't even ride their bikes home together." It is nice that this woman cared (I guess) but I do not feel she helped in anyway.  She made it unsafe.  She could have asked the boys if they were okay, or had parents near by but she just stressed them out.  They could not figure out why she didn't just pass them.  As she lectured me she even commented "I can see I am really irritating you" (she was) and then she just kept going. Why didn't I just walk away with the boys? I told my sister this story and she said "that is when you use your words and say, "You need to leave." ".  She also suggested I teach these kids the middle finger but I don't plan to go that route. 

I took this as they rode past me as I was parked on the side of the road watching to make sure they were safe and good. 

The past weekend we went back to the church to ride bikes, just our family.  I asked Jared if he wanted to ride his bike home and he said yes. So he did and I meanly thought I sure hope that lady comes by and sees him. And sees me patiently watching to make sure he is safe.

Rented, dates, indexing and work

Our house was rented within 12 hours of it being listed. We were not terribly worried about it being rented but that was fast! A JAG (Navy) family will be coming here this Summer for the 11 month course and they snatched it up.  Even if it means getting a different renter each year we are happy to go that route with JAG families.  I went biking with a friend here last week who's husband is with the JAG and she told me that they have friends coming here for the course and those friends actually reached out to them wanting them to check out the house for them.  When her husband heard the address he laughed and said " we know them, its our Bishop! They are the nicest people and its a great house/location." They live in the big neighborhood about 1 mile away from our house. Mark apparently had hinted to this family that we would likely be moving when they went sledding one day while I was at UVA, which I had no clue about.  As we started the rental process another JAG friend offered to post our house on the JAG Facebook page but we declined because we have 3 JAG families in our ward and we were waiting as long as possible for word to get out.  Really, it would have been fine to do that but it worked out great doing it they way we did.  We are really glad to have that checked off our LONG to do list. 

Lydia and I went on an ice cream walk date, Mark and I walked around the downtown mall for our date, I couldn't even remember the last time I had gone down there and Mark and Jared had an indexing date. 

The snow piles from the last storm have stuck around much longer than they normally do. 

We also stopped to check on the rock she painted like a bird last Spring.  It is still safe in its perch. Lydia loves parent dates so much and she is a great date. 

"See you when its safe"

We are getting closer.  Mark is now fully COVID vaccinated!  He got his second shot yesterday on the 03rd and has been feeling pretty awful most of today. Tired, bad headache, achy limbs, fatigue and he had a slight fever this afternoon. We have heard from numerous people that the second shot of Pfizer has a high rate of these symptoms.  We are happy he got it done before going back to school on the 15th. My Mom and sister Susanna, who teaches in Idaho are also fully vaccinated.  

Mark participated in some of the church sponsored Roots Tech conference over the weekend.  From that he decided to see if Jared would be interested in indexing so they worked on a few batches together and Jared really enjoyed it.  Mark had Jared join our ward group and he set a goal for himself.  The next day he worked with Lydia on some batches and she did really well.  So on Sunday we spent some time indexing together as a whole family which is a perfect Sunday activity.  Its nice we could all do it together.

 

This past weekend I also went thorough my seasonal decorations and sorted them all.  I filled a container to take to Egypt, a box to store here, and a container to have a friend go through to take what she wants then she said she would take it to Goodwill.  It felt great. I am happy to get things like this done.  

Work has been intense the last 2 weeks. I work part time, 20 hours a week.  Two weeks ago I worked 32.5 hours and last week I worked 40 hours. It's grad recruiting season and it is just a ton of coordinating and scheduling.  On top of that we had interviews for my position, 2 faculty candidate interviews and interviews for the Halsey visiting professorship.  Every February is crazy but this was even more so.  Adding in zoom stuff just complicated it more but last weekend was the first recruiting weekend and it went really well.  We had a lot more recruits than last year so that added to the crazy. This weekend is the next set of events and then we are done.  It feels so good to have it all done.