Shitshow - my new favorite word to describe 2020.
With everything going on in the world right now, taking care of Peter and his health issues, the new family issues Peter & I had to deal with, homeschooling...I mean "virtual learning", and just all the day-to-day responsibilities I'm dealing with, this year has been CRAPtastic.
BUT.....looking back at pics I've taken, not everything has been so bad. So I'm going to do a photo dump on the blog to show what we've been up to this year. And then hopefully maybe from this point on I can keep up on my blogging. We'll see....
JANUARY
It snowed. At first, it's so pretty to look at. Then the realization that school is going to be canceled.....and Peter & I won't be able to make our commute to work....so we're all stuck in the house TOGETHER LOL.
Clifford and Jasmine just chillin' in the snow
This was before we made it out of our neighborhood and onto the main roods (not my car btw). Once on the main roads, it looked worse with numerous cars just parked everywhere on the side of the roads.
Peter going back to the doctor, again. If I remember correctly, his shingles showed up for a second time around the holidays. His neck pain started up again. He ended up getting an ear infection. He was depressed. This is when it was decided he would take a month off from work to try to just work on healing himself.
Jasmine got fixed. What an ordeal! Before she was to be put under for her surgery, Jasmine freaked out while in the cage at the vet, somehow got her canine tooth stuck on the cage door and it broke off. She ended up getting it pulled out completely during her surgery.
I've been replaced. Just joking....but not.
Clifford turned 15!
Took Clifford out for his favorite dessert (creme brulee). I look at this pic and can't believe 15 years have already gone by since I had him. He's officially taller than me. He has my curly hair. And he has my attitude. He has to have the last word, just like me. We butt heads all the time. But I love him so much, probably more than he'll ever know.
Still laugh at this moment - we gave him his "big" gift a few days before his actual birthday. Here he is opening it up and all excited because he sees he got a new cellphone....
....and then he realizes it's Peter's phone. Silly kid. He can't even remember to brush his teeth everyday - no way would we get him a brand new phone! That morning Peter and I went to the mall so Peter could buy himself a new cell so Clifford could get the handy-me-down one. It's still a pretty good upgrade than what Clifford was using beforehand.
Franie gave him the best gift!
FEBRUARY
Happy Valentines Day! Kristjan made cookies for all his (girl)friends.
Clifford bought a chocolate rose with his OWN money to give to a girl he liked at school. Come to find out, he forgot she was allergic to chocolate HAHAHAHAHA. At least he tried
My gift to Peter. A cool card I made. And then some overpriced beef jerky "flowers" I gave him. They tasted disgusting! And when Peter found out how much I spent on it he laughed at me. I tried LOL.
No fancy Valentine dinner. We went out for pizza. Here's Kristjan barely tolerating me with a selfie.
Kristjan turns 14! Peter and I were pretty cool parents this year - we got him a piercing kit and a real tattoo gun (with fake skin to practice on)
For his birthday dinner, he wanted all his favorites from McDonald's. So that's what we did. He was regretting it a little while later.
That night he busted out his new piercing kit, and with the guidance of his dad he pierced his own ear.
Decided to change my look up!
MARCH
Peter and I on our last date night right before everything changed thanks to Corona.
We escaped for a weekend trip to Moclips with Peter's Aunt and cousins. A huge thank you to Aunt Janet for including us. Peter and I had been pretty devastated dealing with some family drama, and this getaway helped us to finally feel relaxed and be surrounded by people who love us.
APRIL
Happy Easter! Boys may no longer believe in the Easter Bunny, but they're never too old for their basket full of candy. And a good Easter Egg Hunt with their cousins.
Kristjan pierced his Aunt Dee's ears!
Kristjan has decided to change up his looks. No longer wants to dye his hair. No longer wants it long.
Peter had a little fun with helping Kristjan out. Can you guess what cartoon this is from?
Happy Mother's Day to ME!
JUNE
We packed up and headed out for our first camping trip of the summer. We headed out to Randall to stay at a private campground - Cascade Peaks. Pretty cool place. It was the weekend there was the big rain/thunderstorm. Made for an interesting trip. Some cousins joined us for the first night before tapping out the next day due to the non-stop rain. We stuck it out another night.
OMG! Such a moment for me here. Right before Corona hit and kids had to do schooling virtually, Clifford had just started a new semester. For whatever reason, he had decided not to turn in any assignments for his English class. That gave him an F. And then virtual learning started, which was a complete disaster. I was currently working full time, then coming straight home to then homeschool two kids and make sure they worked on their assignments (and then went straight to bed to repeat this routine all over again day after day for about 3 months!). I was on Clifford's butt to get his grade up. And for whatever reason, there weren't many assignments in English to help him accomplish this. He basically had to write some papers and had all those months to just work on it, so there wasn't much direction which is NOT good for Clifford. Well, only about a week & a half left of school remaining, he got his grade up to a B! The day I found out, I stopped by the store on the way home from work to buy him a cake and celebrate!
Happy Birthday Peter! Lookin' good for 42!
Celebrating 16 years of marriage!!
I planned a family weekend camping trip to celebrate. All the state parks were still closed, so we tried out the Lynden KOA.
Kristjan graduated from Middle School. I had to work and couldn't get away to take him to his "driveby" graduation, so he caught a ride with his best friend Cindra. Then later that night I gave him his candy bouquet and made him homemade orange chicken for dinner, per his request.
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! YES!!!!
I survived homeschooling! What a shitshow that was. I got decent grades though (seriously, the last two weeks of school we were ALL over it. At this point, I seriously did their homework for them. I made them sit right next to me while I did it and would occasionally ask them questions on the material just so I could say they "participated". I didn't give a f^%& anymore).
Here they are celebrated with our ice cream for dinner/junk food for dessert tradition!
Happy Father's Day Peter! I surprised him by buying the shop-vac he had been eyeing. I bought it a few days before and put it at his work station in the garage as a surprise. Then the morning of Father's Day I took him out for breakfast while the kids still slept.
Corona may have canceled the Pirate's Weekend even in Westport, but we didn't let that stop us from still making a trip out and hanging out with family.
JULY
Happy 4th! We learned a few years ago that our neighborhood is pretty rockin' for the holiday, so we stopped going to Long Beach. We excitedly blew up our hard earned money for 20 minutes of fun LOL.
