Pierced Ears, Wallaby, Granddad's Apples and Back to Church

So much has happened and I have failed to document it all. Here's an attempt to catch up. Back in March, Baylie was given pierced ears for her birthday. Unfortunately, it was at the beginning of COVID so she wasn't able to have it done. Finally, in September, she got them done! She was sooo excited! We went to Sharky's in Lexington.

She's one happy girl!

In September, our van finally bit the dust. We decided if we were going to be spending money every month to fix it, we might as well have a car payment. So we embarked on a vehicle hunt. I had been doing some interest shopping online for a while and was leaning towards a Honda CRV. I only had three requirements: a roof rack for our kayak, electronic lift gate and leather seats - because, kids. I couldn't find those things in a car that wasn't way outside of our price range. It was discouraging.

I decided to forget about a Honda and see what else was out there. I love CarMax because it's an easy place to research. I started leaning towards a Subaru and everything I learned about them was positive - affordable, reliable, good gas mileage, long life, etc. I settled on a Subaru Outback and requested to have it shipped from Charlotte, NC, to Columbia. CarMax called to confirm everything.

A couple days later on a Friday, I called to see if the car was on it's way or if we could just drive and see it. I found out that CarMax had messed up and the request had not been processed. Plus, it was in Raleigh not Charlotte. I was so disappointed. But I was able to find another Outback that was in Charlotte and had the features we wanted. Well, we got to Charlotte and the car didn't have the feature we thought it would have and it reeked of cigarette smoke. I was so sad. It was all I could do not to cry. We were running out of time and we desperately needed a car. I was ready to give up, but instead I jumped on my phone and found a Subaru Forrester at another CarMax. The guy we were working with at CarMax gave us the text of a guy at the other CarMax. On the way there, we passed a Forrester and realized that it wasn't going to be big enough for our family. I got on my phone again and found another another Outback. I texted the guy at CarMax and asked him to hold it for us.

When we got there - the car was perfect! As we were walking to the car, another salesman was coming to get the car, but because we had texted our contact, he had already pulled the keys! Someone else tried to pull it just a short time later, but we got there first. The car had just been traded in the day before. So they had cleaned it and tested it and it had just been put into the system a few hours later. We really feel it was a blessing from Heavenly Father just for us. On top of everything else, David had been let out of work early or we would have missed the car completely.

The car was so much more than we had hoped for. Not only does it have the three features we wanted, it has so many bells and whistles we didn't even imagine. It keeps us in the right lane, it keeps us from following too closely, it has memory to remember mine and David's personal settings, it has GPS (that we still haven't figured out how to program), seat warmers in front and back, and other little bells and whistles. Such an amazing vehicle! We were so excited and truly felt blessed.

We named the car Wallaby because he's an Outback. On Sunday, we took him for a spin to the temple. Did I mention he has a moon roof?!

In September, the kids and I decided to go apple picking. We haven't done that since the kids were really little. We decided to go to Grandad's in North Carolina. It was a loooong drive, but we didn't mind because we have a new car!

We were able to pick gala and fuji apples.

The setting was beautiful.

The kids decided to explore the corn maze.

It was massive, but they didn't explore all of it. I didn't try it out because corn mazes make me claustrophobic.

We bought apple cider donuts, which were yummy! Jalen was in heaven with his carameled apple.

Apple crates.

Grandad's was a fun place to spend some time.

I made a yummy apple pie - I didn't make the crust from scratch, but it was still good.

And apparently everyone liked it.

And in other great news - we were finally able to go back to church in person!

And I was finally able to wear my new skirt.

It has been a crazy time, but we love each other and life in the Batchelor Pad is good.

David Turns the Big 4-0

In all the business of the past several weeks, David turned 40! Such a milestone birthday. He is such a kid at heart, that it seems hard to think of him as an old man.

His new school mascot is the pandas, so we got him a giant panda head and some panda socks.

We used song titles to send him on a treasure hunt around the house to find his main gift.

He was excited to get a new trimmer. We need it!

He didn't want a birthday cake and chose Frosters at Circle K instead. We celebrated by going to Baylie's tennis match. 

David has now spend almost as many years married to me as he spent before he met me and he is now the age I was when we adopted Baylie. He says he'd be fine taking care of an infant right now, but I think he doesn't remember what that is really like.

4th & 7th Grade

In looking through pictures, I realize that I have not blogged about several important things. One is the return of school in the time of COVID. It is definitely a strange time. We elected to have the kids go back to school in a hybrid format. That means they have school online at home on Monday and Tuesday and then go to school on Thursday and Friday. We weren't sure if it would be better to be virtual or if it would be better to have face to face, but we ultimately made this choice.

The kids love being back in school where they can see friends and interact with teachers. I think they also like the days when they can sleep in a bit, be mask free and have some overall freedom at home. The hardest part is that I teach four days a week so I have to go to school every day and they are home alone two days a week. On Wednesdays, we all get to be home together. I teach via online lessons that are prerecorded. I do run up to the school long enough to give a quick lesson to 4K, but mostly we're home on that day.

In two weeks, it will start to change. Jalen will go back to four days a week. Two weeks after that, Baylie will do the same.

While I'll be glad to only have to prepare one kind of lesson instead of both face to face and virtual, I'm a little nervous about what the impact might be. I hope that we will be safe and no one will get sick.

According to surveys, teachers in our district - including me - are not comfortable going back because our classes are full and kids don't maintain social distance, but some parents are protesting to go back. It's been kind of ugly.

Jalen has been greatly blessed with fantastic teachers this year. He is in Ms. Moody's fourth grade class and she is perfect for him. This is his third year working with Mrs. Taylor and she has helped him grow a great deal. I don't have a picture of his OG tutor who Ms. Taylor, but she has had a huge impact on his learning. This will be Jalen's last year at Irmo Elementary, which makes us sad, but we are so excited about his opportunity to go to a charter school for students with dyslexia.

Jalen conducted an at-home science experiment related to the different layers of the atmosphere.

Baylie was awarded the 7th grade student of the month. We are proud of how she always shows good citizenship. She's a great girl.

Because of COVID and efforts to not cross-contaminate, students can't come to my classroom this year. Instead, I push in to their classrooms on a cart. It's challenging, but it's okay.

David is at a charter school - East Point Chinese Immersion - where class sizes are smaller. Interestingly enough, his school has had COVID while mine has not. He loves his job and is so much happier than he was at Ridge View. It's good to see him happy at work again.

I think we're all hoping that things will go back to normal soon, but I'm not sure things will ever truly be "normal" again.

Baxter Court

Irmo Elementary has had a large garden space for several years. When I was a stay at home mom, I spent A LOT of time working in the garden and trying to keep it looking nice. It was a big job. Unfortunately, teachers and students were very seldom able to be in the space because there's just not time in the school day. And since I started working, I don't have time to take care of the garden. It has become overgrown and an eye sore. 

The PTA decided to dismantle the garden so the space can be used for PE and recess. I am so grateful for this group of women that have become my support and strength over the past several years. I love that we always pull together to serve our children. They make me a better person. I love with spouses and kids join in on the service.

These boxes are so cool, but they're falling apart. We dismantled them and are going to rebuild them in our backyard. I'm excited about that!

I dug up some of the iris to replant. I had thought of digging up the gardenia that I planted a few years ago, but it is now huge - too huge to move.

My sweet friend April is running for school board. It is a difficult and ugly time for her to be trying to do this, but I hope she wins. We need her voice to combat so much of the ugly out there.

The before and after is pretty amazing.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning.