June 2020

We had a wonderful month, full of adventures.  It's finally summer and, while we are not back to normal, June felt like the first time we could try to do some normal things, albeit safely.

We got together with many of the students and the teachers in Brennan's 4th-6th grade elementary program.  Most of them stayed together from 4th-12th grades.  We had a socially distant get together (except for this photo!) at the park, masks worn!  It was great to see these young people and hear about their plans next year!

I work many, many hours a week on the COVID team at work so my shifts are a little crazy and it's been busy, but I have snuck in a few bike rides and walks.  Including this bike ride in the shape of Indiana in our town - inspired by a friend from church and his run one day.

Andie and I went to the drive-in, which I've been wanting to do for a long time.  We saw "Grease"!  I will definitely go back!

The church and youth group had a Graduates parade through all the neighborhoods of this year's high school graduates.  It was really touching!  They brought signs and gifts and I thought it was just so thoughtful.

Posing when they saw I was taking pictures

Brennan received this prayer shawl from one of our church members to take with him to college.

After many months away, we got together outdoors, sitting apart with our book club and wine club.  Mike brought his new electric knife sharpener to wine club so we all got our dullest refreshed!

We celebrated Father's Day with a yummy meal of David's favorites and a relaxing day.  

We made a quick trip to Mississippi between Thomas's summer semesters, which also happened to be ON Thomas's 20th birthday!  It was great to celebrate with family!  He is moving into a one bedroom unfurnished apartment later this month, so he requested essentials this year. 

I'm hoping one day soon, when it's safe for everyone, we can visit Grandma Carolyn in person and give her a big hug.  Chatting through the window by the sticker bushes is no fun at all.

We had a family and friends birthday lunch for Thomas and I was so happy to have Danielle, Natalie, and Shelly to help me out!  Hard to throw a party in another state during a pandemic!  But we had a great time at Oby's with Grandma and Grandpa, Donna and Ellie, Shelly, Danielle, and Natalie, and then Robin, Larry, and Wesley Graves.  Thomas and Wesley are 5 days apart (and little brothers Brennan and Tanner are 4 days apart!).  We had not seen them in years.

Thomas and Wesley

We took the time to recreate a couple of photos too!  Here are the boys and Larry many moons ago, and in June 2020.  They've changed just a little :)

And Natalie, Brennan, Thomas, and Danielle about 9 years apart at Oby's!

Finally, we went out to campus for Natalie's photo shoot for two sponsors for her upcoming national pageant.  Remy crashed and clearly needs to be in all of Natalie's shoots from now on!

Happy 4th of July!

May 2020

May is always an especially busy month for us, but May 2020 will go down as super special!

Brennan finished high school!  While everyone was celebrating the last day of e-learning and school for the year, Brennan had a final AP exam to take at 4:30 p.m. on the last day of school!  At 6:00 that evening though, he was done!  Here he is on his last day of school (with Remy).

First day of Kindergarten and Last day of Senior year!

 After Brennan finished classes, he and David headed to Mississippi to visit family.  Everyone made it a Brennan-focused weekend with gifts and a party!

Grandma Carolyn and her caregivers made Brennan and memorable card too.  Although they were not able to visit in person, I know it was great to see her.

Our school system really went all out to make this a special day for the graduates.  We had a walk-through graduation with family.

With masks of course.

And we celebrated at home with Thomas in town.

David and I celebrated raising two high school grads.  We did it!

David and I also took a rare day that I did not have to work and headed to Madison and Hanover on the river.  We had fun driving around and walking around.  It was great to be out in the sunshine enjoying a Sunday drive.

Brennan was not the only important grad in our family.  Niece Taylor also graduated in May!

We had a great Mother's Day together.  We ordered take-out (my choice!) and the guys helped me plant a bunch of flowers and herbs in my many Mexican macetas.  We had a visitor one day!

The dogs keep a constant eye out for Peter Rabbit and his family.

And then at the end of the month we spent the day watching YouTube on TV - cousin Danielle's all-day dance recital was shown Live and that was fun to see!

And then Brennan's Virtual Graduation made it official!

This summer we hope for a trip to celebrate Brennan's graduation, a trip to Mississippi to visit family, Thomas is in summer school and is moving into a new apartment, Brennan is gearing up for Purdue, and we are enjoying a lot of family time and sunshine. 

We hope you have a wonderful summer!

April 2020

 April 2020 was the wildest month.  The weather did not cooperate here in Indiana and it felt cold and wet all month long.  Of course, quarantining is not my favorite thing, I missed countless exciting things I had planned after a miserable winter at work.  That has extended into a long, cold spring with way more hours at work than I am used to.  I sound uncharacteristically harsh, but dang, I am ready for summer.

While it was not the April I dreamed of, we did have some good times.  We went on some fun walks outdoors with the dogs, and had a few little socially distanced excursions.  Of course, Bailey and Remy love having us home.

 Daddy's driving through Chic-fil-A and it's Bailey's turn to be in the front seat.  He's enjoying every moment.

I did some socially distancing walks around town to see all the beauty.  The magnolias and tulips were gorgeous at North Christian Church.

We had several Zoom calls with friends, and those were a lot of fun!

Mary made us masks and Kelly and Scott dropped off a bottle of wine!

Back to the dogs.  They are rarely far from me.  I work a ton of hours from home, but in the comfort of my home.  For our anniversary David got me this fluffiest blanket (that looks just like one of our Maltipoos).  So I use my Maltipoo blanket a lot.  The dogs LOVE it.

I was taking a Zoom yoga class.  Remy was "helping"

Even playing pool downstairs, they like to be close by.

We loved having Thomas home a few days. He's isolating at his apartment in Indy, finishing up his 2nd spring semester of college.  Online learning has not been ideal, but it's OK.

Easter was my favorite day in April I think.  Thomas spent the night.  We opened our Easter baskets and watched the church service on Zoom.  Then we took a break and came back and cooked our entire feast together.  It was awesome!  We have never been alone on Easter.  We either travel to Mississippi and are driving back on Easter Sunday, or we go to church and then have a shared meal with our friends the Towsleys and Borowskis.  That's been our standard for 15 years.  This year, it was just us.

David had never made deviled eggs.  He was a little surprised how much mayonnaise it takes :)

Thomas is a great cook and does a lot of cooking at his apartment.  He's not afraid when I whip out a new recipe.

Our Easter meal was ham, deviled eggs, crescent rolls, asparagus casserole, green beans and new potatoes, and peach cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert.  I loved that we all cooked it together!

Then we zoomed with the Towsleys and Borowskis

And took some photos for Brennan's graduation announcements.

I celebrated 25 years at work.  I had a 7 year break but started 25 years ago.

My team sent me some gorgeous flowers, and David and Brennan got me roses and a lava cake which we enjoyed together.

We did the senior portrait challenge on social media.  I love graduation time for Brennan.  It's certainly strange this year, but it's also pretty exciting!

There was talk of a front porch parade so we decorated for Brennan.  I think that's no longer a "thing" but it's been fun to have people remark on Brennan's upcoming graduation and move to Purdue.

And then the school corporation announced graduation plans.  There will be a virtual graduation (head shots were due today), and cap and gowns were delivered a month early.  We got all that done and are so thankful to Rachel for taking some quick photos for us. There is also going to be a graduation walk through at the school after school ends in late May.  Thomas will be there and we can celebrate as a family.  It's not the traditional graduation we all anticipated, but it will be great.  Brennan has 3 weeks of school and a bunch of AP exams left.  He's ready and I'm ready for this school year to wrap up!

Happy May!