Being in isolation was not fun. After being almost completely alone for a week, I could feel myself getting depressed. I was extremely tired and slept a lot. I would have bursts of energy followed by complete exhaustion. The COVID headache is different from any I've ever had before. It burns in the nose and up into the brain. It's like a nerve pain and is very painful. My eyeballs burned. My chest felt pressure, but my inhaler helped with that. I never lost my sense of taste or smell, which are common side effects of COVID.
Fortunately, Tashi was a faithful companion.
I watched a lot of t.v.
Tiffani sent me beautiful flowers.
And I got a lot of organization projects done.
We had hoped that because of my isolation, Jalen would be able to start school on Monday, but on Wednesday, David lost his sense of taste and smell. He got tested and on Friday we found out that he had COVID. He had to go into isolation and Jalen couldn't start school until the following Friday. (David and I didn't have to isolate, but if we didn't, Jalen would have missed even more school.)
Baylie never had to quarantine because she is immunized, showed no symptoms, and tested negative. She was selected as one of two students to represent her school at the district kick off for employees. It was quite an honor. I was out of isolation so I could take her.
There were two students selected from each school.
Dr. Ross called out each student by name. Unfortunately, I was too slow and missed her name.
It's hard to see, but the students created a heart by stretching ribbons between themselves. Dr. Ross has an educational foundation that focuses on the heart.
Later, Baylie was able to go to the Open House at Irmo Middle School. We are excited that our friends the Alsups will be back in the building this year. We're even more excited that Alexa and Baylie have classes together.
Baylied loved her ELA teacher's "Dumble" door.
We love her school.
I was excited to see my sweet friend April for the first time in over a month. I'm so grateful for good friends to share the motherhood experience with.
Baylie started school on Wednesday, August 18. It was weird to not have my kids start school on the same day. Baylie was ready to go! She had a great first day and is enjoying her classes so far. She is also loving tennis and will probably get to travel with varsity this year.
Jalen was supposed to start school on Monday, August 9, but because of me and David, he missed almost two full weeks of school. His bags were packed and ready to go.
Poor kid ended up getting swabbed three times! He tested negative every time.
He finally got to start school on Friday, August 20. He was scared to death and cried a lot the night before. He had never gone to school without either me or Baylie being at the same school. I will be subbing at PACE, but his first day, he was on his own.
Fortunately, he had a fantastic day! I was so relieved to hear that he made friends and loved his teacher. He also loved learning sign language.
To celebrate the first week of school, we went to the Big Mo drive in to see a double feature. There aren't many drive ins left, so I'm glad my kids get to have that experience.
Free Guy was a really cute movie that unfortunately had pretty foul language, including an F-bomb. It was completely unnecessary and kind of ruined the movie for kids. It's sad because otherwise it was a great movie and one that would have been fun for families.
We already knew we liked Jungle Cruise because the kids saw it at the theater with Aunt Tiff and we bought it on Disney+. Unfortunately, we just couldn't stay awake, so we ended up leaving before it was over. As always, my car battery died and we had to use the portable charger. That has been a well-worth-it purchase.
Last Saturday we were washing the porch chairs and were surprised to find a humongous black widow!
We also have enormous spiders on one of the windows. They are harmless, but huge.
You can't see this massive one in the back yard, but his web stretches from the tree to the trampoline.
When we lived in Texas, I had peppers that changed colors and I loved them. I've found similar ones since then, but hadn't seen them with the purple peppers. I was really excited to find some at Home Depot.
I bought this little hedge hog on super clearance at Target. David started putting it together and realized it was missing pieces. I contacted the manufacturer and they send us replacement parts for free!
I love it! The eyes are kind of creepy, but it's so cute!
Overall, things are going well at the Batchelor Pad. It's weird to be back on a regular schedule. Much as I miss my students, I'm grateful to be able to be home more and focus on our family.
