bluebear

Ummm... well I had already been shopping online for everything, only going to petsmart on Friday. Which i don't think I did last year anyway. I like seeing Christmas decorations everywhere, but again I haven't been going out anyway. So, I guess I'll say, looking at the ads with my mom and sister before Thanksgiving dinner. Because I'm thinking there won't be a lot of excitement and things in the ads.

Oh this looks amazing, thank you! My 5yo grandson is like me and my dad, saving every scrap of everything so he can "make something out of it". He should love building this.

Happy September! We are in the 3rd week of school, and it was announced yesterday that the students (if in person instruction is chosen) will start to return September 28, so in just under 3 school weeks (they are on break the week before). They can still choose remote learning, so we'll see how things go. We had a few days in the mid-eighties last week, but looks like we are back to 90+ degree weather for this week.

So I've made 15 blankets since April. "Those will make great Christmas gifts for everyone" she said. I have 3 still here ready to be gifted. Me and my kids are so impatient (5 of them went to kids' friends for birthdays, housewarming, and moving away gifts). Luckily I found lots of yarn on clearance, so I still have enough to make about 24 more blankets, and I only have 8 family members to gift to (husband and kids and grandson already have their's), so I should still be in good shape. If I don't continue to give them all away!

Whew! Made it to the weekend! School starts Monday, after a 2 week delay, and this has been a whirlwind week getting learning devices out for everyone (we were already 1-to-1, but K-2 didn't take devices home before, and they are now). My husband and I are on the technology district office end, making sure schools have what they need, and my son is on the school end, the person getting devices to the students. We've also had a big rise in enrollment, so it's been a lot more than just the littles having to have devices assigned (son is at a high school). So it's been stressful for all of us. I finshed blanket #15 since March Thursday. Today so far I've been lazy, but I need to go sand my foyer floor. Last weekend I got all the poly and stain off, and now I need to sand all over with a finer grit. Bleh.

Yeah, my last pantry order, they put bags of chips in the 'main part' of the box with bottled drinks, and put frosting cans and cashew cans and boxed mixes in the sectioned off 'safe' part. The chips were crushed and both bags had holes in them, so that was fun to clean up. Plus, the box was very heavy and broke the tape, so it was delivered untaped and upside down. I called to have the chips resent or refunded. Online I couldn't request a refund of food. And on the phone they couldn't just send a replacement, they had to refund. But then something wasn't done right on their end, and they refunded my entire order. I did another this week, because Kroger was out of body wash of all things on my weekly pickup order, and there were a few other things I could get. (Fun fact: it's hard to find single body wash on regular Amazon, but Pantry has it.) But I was very thoughtful on what I ordered (no chips!), so hoping the packing is better and this one arrives less crushed.

I've been making blankets as well. I finished number 14 today. But so far, only 5 haven't been given away yet, and 2 of those probably won't make it to Christmas. My parents and sister and her family will all receive them for Christmas though.

August! Normally we start school on or around August 1, but that is delayed 2 weeks this year, even though prep is already in full force. My grandson starts kindergarten Thursday, I'm so excited for him!

Don't you love it, when you spend so much time trying to figure something out, doing the same thing over and over, knowing that what you want is possible and it really shouldn't be that hard... only to wake up stupid early on a weekend morning with the solution clear as day? And during that same "can't go back to sleep now" conversation with yourself, you also remember something that you meant to do late Friday afternoon. So I've been working for a couple hours, but those are a few things I don't have to worry about Monday morning when teachers come back and things will be crazy. Funny thing is that one of the emails went to my boss, and he has already replied. So at least it's not just me!

Finishing the first week back to "in-person" working. Teachers start next week. Last week they decided to delay the start of school by 2 weeks, and to go fully virtual. So we have been finishing up making preparations to make sure every student has a learning device. We are fortunate in that we are already a one-to-one district, so that has helped tremendously. The biggest change this year is that the younger grades will now be able to take home the device that was previously only kept at school. But we had everything we need already, just to get it all distributed! I am the inventory person, so I've been buried in lots of numbers!!

We finally found out the plans today for returning to work. As I suspected, we will return July 20, one week before teachers come for pre-planning. We will go back to our old schedule of remote work 1 day a week. As we have 7 people in a portable trailer, they had to make some changes. 3 people will move out and to another area, and 4 of us will stay. My husband and I will switch our desks to the ones being vacated by those moving. Sounds fun. Guess I need to start washing my hair with a color stripping shampoo, to try and bring it back to close to handbook-approved color! Makes me sad, I was quite enjoying being a "purple head"!!

That's awesome!!

That was an interesting read. Thank you!

My daughter just bought her first car on her own. And got her own insurance. So at 28 we finally have her all on her own, and no longer paying anything. 1 down, 2 to go!

Happy July! At work we are gearing up for the new school year. Not as much or the same as years past, but there's still things to do. New teachers start in just over 2 weeks, all teachers a week after that, and students will return in just a little over 4 weeks! We still haven't been told when we will be returning to the office. But I expect it to start in some capacity around July 20 when new teachers start. I wish we'd find out though, because I need to start washing my hair with a color stripping shampoo, as I may or may not have a handbook approved hair color right now! Of course, it's only noticeable in the sun, and I sit in a dark trailer, so probably no one would see or notice anyway.

Finally got to see my grandson today, it's been 4 months since he was last up. And my daughter, haven't seen her since Christmas. It was a nice afternoon, but I'm exhausted by the 5 hour round trip drive to get him. This was only the second time I've driven since lockdown started, and that trip was only 2 miles down the road and back. Combine that with the fact that I'm terrified of driving on the interstate, and that made for a super fun trip, especially with my mom and a 5 year old!

Those are interesting thoughts. A couple more thoughts to throw into the mix. Some people have been home for 3 months now. And had to occupy their time somehow. I suspect a lot of shopping was done out of boredom, so some people may have completed a lot of holiday shopping already. And a lot of people have been making things, that could become gifts. I have already made 6 blankets, with supplies already on hand to make 6 more (see above about more time to shop). So there may not be as much a need for shopping for gifts either. We'll see how it turns out. Will be interesting.

I *got* to go to my office yesterday for the first time in 13 weeks. My husband had to go set up a new phone, and he wanted me to help put the screen protector on. (We work together) We planned to be there 30 minutes, but ended up being (a very fast) 2 hours! No one was there when we arrived, but 4 people were in the building when we left. Our office is in a trailer behind the building, so we didn't see or talk to anyone else. I was able to get something done that I would have not wanted to have to mess with on the first day back, so that's nice to have that out of the way. It was a very productive 2 hours. So I should be good for another several weeks now! I suspect that we have about 5 more weeks before we start transitioning back. Nice to know that we can go for short times now if needed though.

June 1! 30 years today since my high school graduation. Woohoo!

Finished making blanket #4 since March. Getting stocked up on future gifts! Materials arrived yesterday to start the next one. But now to decide if I should move to another craft for a bit, or if I start another blanket, if I should choose another pattern. I've gotten quite comfortable with the one I've been using.

My youngest turned 21 yesterday. Ack! Next week is my 25th Anniversary. Wow.

We are starting on our 8th week at home. My husband was unofficially told today that we wouldn't go back for the rest of May at least (we work in the same department). Oldest son, who works on the "other side" of our larger department, may have to go in to his school for a few days towards the end of the month to collect student chromebooks. Our leadership is still working on making that decision, because even though he works in the school, he works for the district office, and it's the school that is telling him to come in. So it's a little sticky there. I'm glad to at least know that we won't be going back for May, that gives me some direction. I wouldn't want to be told on a Friday that I'm expected back the following week, like another district was. I like to have some notice and a plan.

The first couple weeks the store I visited were out of both flour and sugar. I haven't needed flour, as I had bought a bag of bread flour not long before, and don't use all purpose much. After a couple weeks I was finally able to find sugar, but it was scarce. Happy May! Our schools have 2 more weeks left (1 for seniors), so things will start picking up for me work wise as we collect computers and start getting ready for next school year.

I dont have anything nice to say about UPS. But we'll just say that the term "stupid UPS" is used often in my house, and has been several times just in the last week. And we'll just leave it at that.

So it might be bad to say, but I'm okay being in and not seeing anyone else. We had a handful of video meetings the first couple weeks, got to see the bosses' houses, but now we are just on auto pilot, and no meetings for me since April 1. The new end of the school year is in 3 weeks, 1 week earlier than planned. But we still have to now make arrangements for students and teachers to come up and retrieve personal things, middle and high students to return textbooks, and seniors to return chromebooks. I'm not sure if I'll have to go into the office while that is being done. But I am anxious to know what the plan is and when we will be physically back. (Partly because I colored my hair and I need about a week's notice to get it washed out!!) New teachers start July 20, and as long I'm back by about July 1st, I can get things ready for that. And my feelings won't be hurt if it isn't until then. Meanwhile though, my state starting opening today... we'll see how that goes. I've got all my fingers crossed, and still staying in! My poor mama though, she wants to go out so bad, and wants us to come to Sunday dinner. This Sunday is my son's birthday, and she really wants us to come over. But our shelter in place doesn't end until April 30, for for sick and elderly it is May 13th, so she can't have any visitors. (She's in denial though that she falls into that category!)