January 2022

 This feels accurate. 

January started with a wallop. It started with an event that I both looked forward to and dreaded. The dedication of the clinic in Sandpoint, Idaho named after my mom. I looked forward to representing my mom in this incredible honor and pinnacle of her career and yet the family dysfunction and knowing that my sisters and extended family members would be there caused me considerable dread. This happened the week after New Years and over shadowed the first week of January. I'll write about this as a separate post.

As the girls went back to school after Christmas break the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was all that anyone could talk about. Teachers at the middle school and high school said that schools might close again and were preparing their students in case distance learning started back up again. Utah was a nightmare with so many COVID cases and everyone around here was starting to get sick. Kirk and Meki were exposed over Christmas and Kaiya ended up getting COVID as did everyone who spent Christmas with them except for Kirk, Meki, and Kirin. This was incredibly worrisome on its own but added exponentially to the stress that they might not be able to travel up here for the dedication. It was down to the wire. We tried to avoid church (except for Tyler due to his calling obligations) and things like that to stay healthy so that we wouldn't miss the dedication of the clinic. 

Kameron, Ailey, and Tyler all got their COVID booster shots this month. Kam felt terrible. He had a fever, felt sick, tired, and achy for about 24 hours. Ailey and Tyler had zero reaction at all besides a sore arm that lasted for about a day. It's so weird how differently it effects everyone.

We had Stake Conference this month. A few weeks prior to it, the Stake President called me, and asked me if I would be a youth mentor. That meant that I was assigned a youth from my ward who was speaking in stake conference and tasked with helping them with their talk thus eliminating stress on their parents. Okay... it seemed weird but I said yes. I was assigned one of the cutest little girls in our ward. A 5th grader. I used to be her primary president. She came over one day after school and stayed for about an hour and a half and I helped her put together a basic outline for her talk and taught her how to use the Church's website. Kind of weird and kind of fun. She did a fantastic job speaking at stake conference... no thanks to me. She's an amazing kid! It was fun to pray for her and to cheer her on. 

The first several weeks of January were incredibly snowy and add to that de-Christmasing the house and it was pretty dreary. January is always so blah. Although I enjoyed setting new goals for the year and reviewing the progress that I made in 2021. I wiled away several hours doing that and made Tyler do it too. LOL. Most days we strapped on our spikes and did a lot of walking in the snow. Blizzard or no blizzard. I needed fresh air every day. I also got back on the peloton and started riding on the days when the weather was truly too awful to go outside. That felt good too. 

We got another whopper of a snowstorm that closed schools for two days in all of the surrounding school districts except for ours. We went on a two hour delayed start which was completely ridiculous. The roads were hellacious. We had no snow plow drivers and no bus drivers around here. The thought of kids attempting to walk to school was terrifying. Parents and teachers were irate. The snow storm then turned into another ice storm. The school district came back and said that if parents *chose* to keep their kids at home on those days it would count as an excused absence. We *chose* to keep Ailey and Bryn home on both days. I didn't go to vendor night that week and I was glad that Tyler was working from home. Reilly and Hunter had to drive into work and again I was glad for studded snow tires! It felt like January got off to a slow and laborious start. Fighting weather and variants and everything else. But once it got going it came at us full blast.

Bryn started basketball. She made the varsity team. She plays defense. This took over all of January. She had practice every single weekday. Sometimes practice was in the morning and sometimes it was at night. This wreaked havoc with piano lessons and homework and dinner. She had two games a week. It's good that she enjoys it because she is TIRED! Bryn's first basketball game was cancelled due to so many players on both teams testing positive for COVID. Bryn has to be tested at school three times a week to play sports. The second game they had to have a Varsity/JV combo so that they could have enough players to play in that game. After that all of her games went on as planned. She won the sportmanship award at one of her games this month. She is having fun and learning a lot!

Kameron got transferred from Fairmont, MN to New Prague, MN. He was sad to leave Fairmont. He grew to love his little branch and that area so much. It has been a wonderful experience for him. He likes his new branch in New Prague. Kameron was made a district leader this transfer and has a companion that is from WA too. There is a lady in his branch that takes fantastic care of the missionaries (and their parents). She sends me pictures several times a week and keeps me posted on all of the good things that Kam is doing. It's so sweet. Kameron thinks the world of her and he and his companion call her "Mama Seger". I am so appreciative of thoughtful people in the world! Kameron also finally sent out an email this month. His first since November!

Pictures courtesy of Mama Seger:

I love seeing Kam laughing his head off!

Being Kam!

Appreciating simple pleasures! 

These pictures show me that Kam is still Kam! 

Kameron also got accepted to college! He and Ailey will both be attending the same school in the fall. Waiting for Kam's mission president to fill out all of the information that he needed to and FINALLY do Kameron's ecclesiastical endorsement almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown. Trying to coordinate two kids applying to college, figuring out both of their housing situations (which fill up fast), and trying to do it while one kid is on a mission and has very limited internet access was complicated and stressful to say the least! On one of our Monday night video chats with Kameron he got a text from his mission president asking if he could do Kam's ecclesiastical endorsement right then. We told him to say YES and cut short our family chat. Kam called us back about 15 minutes later. His mission president told Kameron to "Tell your mom that she can relax now." Mission presidents are precious. *eye roll*

Ailey and Kameron will also be living in the same big apartment complex. I love this. I don't know if they will. LOL. So far they are okay with it. Kameron wanted to live there with some of his mission buddies and it was one that Ailey wanted to live in too. So hallelujah...there was no fighting them about that. It is five minutes from campus and looks really nice. It will also be helpful while they *attempt* to share a car the first semester. That should be interesting. It does give me peace of mind knowing that they will be there together and can keep an eye on each other.

Ailey had a particularly busy month. She prepped for Rubber Chicken. Our area's spirit competition with our rival school. There is a girls basketball game and a boys basketball game and half-time performances with both schools' dance teams and cheerleaders to win the coveted rubber chicken "Chuck". Ailey was so busy choreographing dance routines and having practices. Then Rubber Chicken was postponed until February due to the skyrocketing COVID cases. Basketball games were postponed and then rescheduled two weeks later and Ailey danced at half-time at all of them this month. 

Dance team competitions happened too. Ailey's team has been doing great and they are fun to watch. They have a FANTASTIC pom routine this year!

She has also been swamped at work. She was one of two servers who didn't get COVID so she was working all the time and then the dishwashers got COVID so she and the other server had to wait tables and then wash dishes too. She was NOT a fan! Ailey also experienced a rite of passage. She got her first ticket and had to pay for it. #adulting. She also had several nights of choir practice for her school trip to Florida in March.

At the end of the month Ailey had her Senior Night recognition at half-time at the basketball game. That was a really fun and cool experience!  

We are supposed to get some kind of official picture(s) eventually. These are courtesy of Reilly. 

By about the second week of January the COVID cases were so high that the school district was doing everything they could not to close schools.  Every week has been at least a three day weekend if not a four day weekend. I guess the hope was that it would give students and teachers a little more time to recover. Having enough staff has been the biggest issue. So many teachers and substitutes were out sick. One day our school district had 200 staff members call in sick. The next day it was 450. 

Grocery stores have had partially empty shelves this month due to COVID issues and weather delays. Both the pass coming from Seattle and the one coming from Montana were closed for several days due to avalanche danger so trucks couldn't make deliveries. Costco reported that they were waiting for 17 truck loads to arrive. But at the end of the month even after both passes had been open for weeks we still continued to have some empty shelves and it was blamed on COVID.

Then if I wasn't sick enough of talking about COVID...around the third week of January Reilly called to say that Hunter had been exposed to COVID by his family. Reilly and Hunter both got COVID for the second time. So much for natural immunity. They were pretty miserable. They both got a more severe case than the last time. We did multiple door drop offs of vitamins, medicine, O2 monitor, Tang, and soup for them. They felt better after about a week. Unfortunately, Reilly's bosses didn't care that she had it. She had to go back to work while still having it. They informed everyone that she had COVID and to interact with her at their own risk. Reilly wore a mask, constantly disinfected everything she touched, used hand sanitizer, and stayed away from people, but I was literally incredulous. No one caught COVID from her (Thank goodness!!) STILL!!! What were they thinking?! It begs the question...how many places are doing this? My guess is MANY.

We had a big stake primary activity planned for this month and it got cancelled due to COVID numbers but... get this... Stake Conference still occurred and was in-person. They eventually provided a Zoom link for those who would rather watch it online. Ridiculous. We didn't go. The stake received a lot of flack for keeping it in-person. The next week the stake sent out an email that said there will now be an option to attend sacrament meeting and 2nd hour via Zoom for the foreseeable future. It blows my mind that school sports were rescheduled or cancelled. School was cancelled for several days. Everyone and their dog has/had COVID. Our activity was cancelled but stake conference went on as planned?! We watched church via Zoom for most of the month.

In the midst of all of this our ward had their Youth Recognition Night. The timing of this was also questionable. Many of the youth weren't there due to having COVID. It has been difficult for us to try to pick and choose what we feel comfortable attending. I didn't feel super comfortable attending this but Ailey was being honored so we went. It was nice to see friends and to see Ailey and the other graduating seniors recognized.

The two senior boys who were also being recognized that night weren't there because they were sick with COVID. Our bishop and our stake president want life to go on as normal and they aren't what I would call COVID conservative. It's frustrating. I get it. I want life to go back to normal too but you also need to be cautious with other people's health and life circumstances.

Then, after 681 days of working from home, on January 24th, Tyler finally went back into the office full time. So far so good. They are phasing people in so the office is still pretty empty. He is so happy to be back at work and back to his normal routine. The girls asked me if I was lonely with everyone back at school and back at work. I said, "I don't hate it!" I really don't. I needed to get back to my life and my *normal* routine too. It's been really nice for all of us!

This month has been super busy for me too. I had my best month ever at Midtown Market. That was awesome! I had a fun girls night with a group of girlfriends which was much needed!! We just gathered at a friends house and talked and talked and talked. It was wonderful! My book club went back to being on Zoom for the next month or so. I don't love it but at least it still happened. This time several husbands joined in on the chat and it was really fun! We might make that a regular thing. I love husbands who read! They were quite hilarious! I got to attend "Stake Council" for the first time. Very interesting. Our family also had the opportunity to do quite a bit of service this month. We dropped off dinners, cookies, and all kinds of things for people who had COVID. 

For the last two months Tyler and I have been doing a Chinese food "flight". We've tried several different Chinese food restaurants on our date nights to find the very best. One was great, a few were okay, and some have been big misses but it has been fun and we are on a quest! We've also hit our favorite used bookstore several times. Tyler and I have done two buddy reads this month. I love it when we read the same book and can discuss it together. We found some fantastic peppermint ice cream at a local ice cream shop. We searched high and low over the holidays to find peppermint ice cream...at grocery stores and ice cream shops...nothing. Was there a peppermint shortage too? Good grief. Anyway... the lack of peppermint ice cream was mentioned online in a FB food group that I'm in and a local ice cream shop said that they would make some. It was divine!

We have also been trying to do a movie night/game night with the girls a couple of times a month. Ailey is home on Sunday nights so that is usually the only time that we can watch a movie or play games with her. It has been a lot of fun. We watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife which we all loved. Tyler and I introduced them to Three Men and a Baby which was also a hit. (Good grief Tom Selleck was cute!) Tyler and I found a mint condition Totally 80s Trivial Pursuit game and have had so much fun playing that! We have to play teams so that the girls can play but they are pretty good with the 80s movies and music categories. LOL.

Once Reilly recovered from COVID we hung out with her quite a bit too. One night when Bryn had a basketball game and I needed to be at vendor night to bring in some new furniture; Reilly came with me so that Tyler could go to Bryn's game. Afterward we grabbed dinner and brought Crumbl cookies home to everyone. After Ailey's Senior Night she went out to dinner with Tyler, me, and Bryn while Ailey went out with her friends. We've done a little shopping with her this month also. These are some of the fun perks of having adult children live nearby.

Despite COVID backtracking our lives somewhat this month; we have had some fun. We've gotten to hang out with friends at basketball games and get-togethers and even gathered with family. We've continued to let the girls hang out with friends. Tyler's thrilled be back with some of his co-workers and friends.  We've continued to eat a lot of comfort food. Such is life in January. Tyler made his famous lasagna. I made my mom's clam chowder, her chicken curry, and my aunt's hot and sour soup. Ailey made Nutella-filled French Palmiers and my Aunt Bonnie's Swedish Cake.

Reilly made our favorite buttermilk syrup and FINALLY got Hunter to try it. She called to tell us triumphantly that he loved it. Hunter is broadening his food horizons!! Ha ha! We ate Raclette that we forgot to eat on New Years and thanks to all of this... I have started doing intermittent fasting. So far so good. I will have to report back on that in a few months. LOL.

She looks so innocent and sweet! LOL.

The struggle is real having a senior in the house again. I guess I should say the *power* struggle is real. Limits are constantly being pushed. It's exhausting. The good news is that there seems to be equal parts good stuff too. No, I take that back...it's not equal...more like 65 struggle/35 good. But the good stuff is pretty good. There have been a lot of late night talks with the girls, some good laughs, and fun milestone events. That's the way it goes. But the struggle is rough. I thought it would be easier with kid #3. Nope. Parents see time slipping away and want to hold on and kids see time dragging and feel suffocated. 

I was listening Dax Shepherd's podcast when he was interviewing Brooke Shields. She was talking about raising teenage daughters. Oh man! Tyler and about I died laughing at the truth she was throwing down. Here's the paraphrased gist.

An angry teenage boy will take an expensive vase and smash it. They want to feel that power. The teenage girl will watch the scenario, stand next to you and say [with malice] "Oohh did that hurt? Was that valuable? Was that your mother's?" and you're like, "Oh my #$% you're evil!"

Yes! Yes! Yes! We have referenced this and quoted it to each other AT LEAST a hundred thousand times this month.

I got the funniest text from my mother-in-law this month asking me if I was "okay". I guess I hadn't been posting enough on social media and she got worried about me. I'm not quite sure how to take that. LOL.  She also spoke in Sacrament Meeting in her ward this month and we got to watch her give her talk via Zoom. I love having the ability to do things like that!

I decorated for Valentine's Day about mid-month because...again...January is blah. 

I finally broke down and watched Emily in Paris. Cheesy and yet bingeable. My friends were right.

I'm also into the show Zoe Bakes. She is a baker in Minneapolis. Her bakery is on our list to visit this summer. She seems so cool. I want her life minus all of the baking. Ha ha!

I am really trying to *relax* and watch some TV and movies. It's not easy. And...yes. I am into Wordle. Of course I am.

To wrap up the month on a definite low... the Kansas City Chiefs did not make it into the Super Bowl this year. Tyler was despondent. So much so that he has refused to have a Super bowl birthday party this year because, "Who even cares now." So yeah. January.

Onward!