The Dress

I wasn't allowed to post pictures of "the dress" when we bought it.  Then there was a pandemic. Then no prom.  Also seamstresses weren't allowed to do fittings. Now there is a red carpet walk and a dinner and somewhere to wear the dress. We very fortunately got a dress alteration appointment. Should be ready for second fitting on the 12th.  Also, she still loves the dress. Yay! The month of June is largely going to be all about Graduation.  It's a happy event for sure.  We all need that right now.  Making the best of it.  

Pandemic and Camping

A very nice local lady delivered these to me this morning before I left for work. $6 each.  Nicely made. Elastics can be removed and replaced with elastic or shoelace. If anyone needs masks I can give you her number.

Sooo many loads to Bings.  So many people at home doing projects and line ups at the dump.  Eric was ready to leave early today so he'd have less time waiting.  He loves a new project and a goal.  When I got up he was outside painting.  I think he was up at first light.  

So camping is being permitted starting June 1.  The reservation site opened May 25.  It was brutal.  I was up early, at the computer ready to go.  Calendar, pen, paper, cell phone on with a site map up, house phone there so DM could call me to coordinate sites.  Bahaha.  It quickly became a fend for yourself situation.  The site crashed over and over.  Signed me out repeatedly. Several times I had sites in my cart and got to the paying part and got shut down.  It was extremely frustrating.  Yes, I could book private sites if there are any available but I really like Provincial Parks.  The rules there work for me.  Plus with the boys both qualified as disabled, we only pay the reservation fee.  In the end, after 4 hours I had three reservations booked.  Yesterday I was able to get a site for 10 days in Lake Cowichan.  We have 20 nights booked.  I think that's pretty good for a shortened season during a pandemic.  

The Deck

Home to this shocking site.  What a job!

He's all over the place.  Destroy a deck. Pick up lumber from the mill.  Sprinkle lawn seeds. 

It was all worse than he thought. He's a tad mystified about how it was still all holding up.  Yikes.

Totally weird looking out the window.  It's my new favorite show.  Haha.

Starting from scratch.  You can clearly see the color difference in this picture.  

The back door is blocked so no one (Kai) can accidentally fall out.  Mom came over to work on the garden tonight and Walter poked his head out the cat door when we were all out there.  Gasp.  Eric waved his arms and hissed so he popped back in.  Phew. Eric has now blocked that door too.  

Another Week Down

Eric and Kai built a robot that actually runs. Eric built it with Kai holding pieces.  Kai was super proud to bring it into the room and let it run around the living room.

Finally cracked open my coloring book.

I had great company.

Road trips when everything is closed!  Haha. Lucky didn't need it.  

Oh, sun patches, so lovely.

Even better with a sister!  Sasha is smiling.

Jia and I made churros in the air fryer.  They turned out great.  Donuts next.

Not pretty but super tasty

The mushroom houses and stages have left the back yard.  Time to make the playground less kiddish. Eric has already put grass seed down.

Oh our boy hates school work.  Tear drops on the paper.  I hate being the ones to make him cry.  Also, apparently shirts are optional in homeschool.  Haha.  Actually he had forgotten to put a shirt on and was heading out of the room.  Normally I would ask him to put a shirt on but I worded it differently and he took it as an opportunity to pretend he meant to be shirtless.  The look on his face at succeeding in word play was pretty cute. When I got home he was still shirtless and he even went to bed half naked.  

Lili and friends did a socially distanced baking event.  Funny because Lili doesn't cook or bake pretty much ever.  Fei and I had to guide her through.  Pre measured everything and explained the recipe.  She had to call for help a couple times but sort of muddled through and produced an apple cake.  Of course she wouldn't do any swaps to make it healthier or lighter. So way too much fat and sugar for some of us.  

Can't get enough of their little faces.

Mr Walter has been catching hummingbirds and bringing them in.  Five of them now! All alive as he has no teeth.  Eric has captured and saved 4, I captured and saved the last one.  There is lots of squealing that goes on when there is a wee hummingbird flying and dive bombing all over the house.  I've been finding wee tiny feathers EVERYWHERE.

Lili's friend group is doing a small, safe, socially distanced outside dinner party at our place after their safe, solo, red carpet walk in their finery. The parents are making it happen. Had to take photos for the parents to see what they're dealing with for decorating, tables etc. I thought the picture looked nice. Everything is so green. Now Eric has a deadline for the deck and house painting.

It's a sucky replacement for a prom but it is what it is.

Oliver, all grown up.  He's 2 this summer.

Haha.  Jia back in a crib.  She wanted to try sleeping in there with Coco but Mom squashed that fun down.

Yup, she was proud, killed that Kleenex good and dead.

New paint color.  Deeper, darker.  Love it.  It's closer to what I wanted in the first place. As close to the trim color in Disneyland's New Orleans and on the Haunted Mansion as we can get it without the actual paint code.

 This old deck just couldn't do another year.  I made Eric put the duct tape down to help the tripping hazard lay flat.  Haha.  Didn't work.  Can't wait for the end results.

This project is super exciting!!  Normally we're looking for time.  Plus for every project he wants to do there are others that have to be done more urgently. I'm also always trying to save the money for fun things and travel.  This deck project was reaching the has to be done before its dangerous zone.  

Apparently Jia loves pics of sleeping babies as much as I do.  I've been leaving the puppies at home occasionally.  Partly so I can get more done, partly so the Fei and Jia have time with the puppies, mostly because Coco is a handful. Hard to imagine looking at her pictures.

Photo by Jia.  Can't believe she captured this one. Isabel is just the best. She is extremely tolerant of the puppies.  They climb all over her.

A Mickey coloring contest. Kai quit early in the game.  The rest of us have to find time to finish another day. Mom and I both have to take our glasses off to see.  

Facebook Memories

10 Years ago.  Our first glimpse of our Isabel at the spca.  Happy Gotcha Izzy.  

OCD puppy.

Coco is adamant that she will do things her way.  A 2 1/2 pound tyrant.  New measures go in place daily to thwart her.  She does NOT forget.  Thank gawd she's so cute.

Coco can't get up yet but she just figured out down yesterday.  She likes up when she is sleepy then we have to stay with her to put her down.  So this will be awesome going forward.  

She just joined me and crashed and I'm delighted she can keep napping when I leave.  It's all about the little things.

She insists on peeing around the toilet.  So another blockade.  Then she started peeing in front of the blockade.  Yeesh.  She gets most of her business on the pads.  Overall for a wee Chihuahua she's doing ok in the potty dept.

This blockade holds Sasha back but she's finally learning to bark for us to come and put her over.  Coco still can't go up or down stairs and her feet haven't touched the floor upstairs yet.  

Chewing on corners!  Sasha too.  

Can't have her in my bed, she can't get down and still pees and poops three times through the night.  The kennel is too hard to clean and set up through the night so she's in a pack and play crib.  

7 months old already.  We've never had such a determined puppy before.  

We're heading out for a drive today and leaving them home today.  I'm nervous.  Haha.  

Course Selection

Lili's appointment to book her courses at the University was on Tuesday.  She got called into work and was so happy to be back at work that she forgot.  It's been the focus for weeks.  With many many many hours of research and calls going into the decisions of the future...and she forgot.  What?!  I took her laptop to her.  In a perfect world it was going to happen electronically automatically right at 5:30.  And it mostly did.  She got 8 of 9 courses requested.  A quick zoom that was grabbed by her advisor and then escorted to another zoom room where a lovely lady helped her shift second semester around and voila she was set.  Phew.  A plan in place.  She was happy.  I was relieved.  I called Eric with the good news and went home.  It is not easy navigating the murky waters of the future with a young adult that doesn't know where or what.  It's been extremely hard to just listen and support without pushing or deciding.  I felt there should be some sort of celebration or at least chocolate involved.  I wondered if I might even get at least one really good night of sleep.  Haha.  Then Lili came home and showed me an email from the University.  No roommates in residence re: covid19.  Which ups the price enough that we need to decide now which living situation really is right for her.  She is open to any and all options. 

She did hear from North Island she's on the waitlist for their nursing program and it's very unlikely she'll get in this year.  

She's been invited to apply for a scholarship for excellence in the arts.  She's been busy all day putting together a video presentation for that. 

Funny moment with her advisor.  She was on the zoom at the bar and the music was loud. She apologized and he asked where she was, he recognized the Rock Cod. He works with a friend of the owner.  

Cinnamon buns made in Fei's foods class.  Yum. We need more homework like this!

Lego watermelon.  I got a call from Kai's vision therapist at school.  She was suggesting a socially distanced walk around our neighborhood.  Ah.  Kai doesn't have any idea what germs and socially distanced are.  He holds hands near cars!  I didn't call her back.  Instead I sent an email letting her know how overloaded we are right now.  Either she will try to send reinforcements to the desperate crazy lady or she will just leave us alone.  Haha.  I simply can not believe how many extra calls, emails, zooms, phone appointments and texts have been added to my plate.  I respect everyone's need to keep working and have income coming in.  Personally I'd really rather just hunker down and resume it all when it can be more normal.  

Luk works hard at his homework.  Above and beyond.  He did a lego art work with Kai. Another kid of mine that thinks math is fun.  We just finished week five with teachers involved and for the first time all three of them had their work ready to be submitted on Thursday night.  Due Friday but I'm not here to oversee it.  So a slightly more successful week than our usual scramble.  

On Sunday cousin Avery asked if we were playing the new version of Animal Crossing on Switch.  A seed was planted for Jia.  With a passion and intensity reserved for people like her she has been petitioning to be allowed to buy the game.  Fei was also interested in playing so helped fuel the onslaught.  I didn't think she had enough money and ended up saying show me the money.  Haha.  She had it!  I dropped by Best Buy on the way home today.  I naively thought I could just buy it.  Oh my. This Mama was out of the loop on this one.  Sold out everywhere.  I came home and bought the download.  Jia is addicted already.  I'm guessing we won't see much of her this weekend.  I wish I could get that excited about something.  

Dual night time tummy rubs.

Doesn't get much better than this.  

That darn old porch leaked again in the rain storm.  Eric has cleared the deck, cleaned and prepped for more sealer and paint.  Taking the time to fix a few other issues on the front of the house at the same time.  Every job leads to more.  He asked me to pick new colors.  Ack. We did it together in a few minutes at Home Depot.  We went in together. Gasp.  No one looked at us oddly so perhaps that isn't as big an offence now?  We're going to keep white with green trim but a deeper green. Changing the black to a slate and the door possibly orange.  The girls are freaking about the door being orange.  I actually want a maroon/wine/purple or lilac but they all freaked at that too.  Eric brought an orange sample home and painted a board for me to see.  It is totally pumpkin.  Which I love but might be too much?  I don't feel like being mature in our color choice.  I want joy and whimsy. 

I can not believe how many projects Eric has going on here.  It's crazy.  

Long weekend with no plans.  This past week should have been our Alaska trip.  I'm taking tomorrow off and Tuesday is my flex so five days off here for me.  No plans at all.  The no plans thing is just sooo weird for me.  

Mother's Day

Albi was at the Oasis church for drive through Gelato.  

We all dropped in on Dwayne and family.  Got to see and hear about all the wedding plans for these cuties.  No other pictures.  Social distancing and it was hot.

Eric dug out Luk's old stroller for Meili on our after dinner walk.  

We very, very rarely walk out of our driveway.  Just isn't a thing we ever want Kai to learn.  There are only sidewalks on the main road.  There are unsavory people just down the road. So we were a chaotic mess trying to get out together with Mom and Leslie for a walk.  Even Jia was confused about why we weren't getting in the car for our walk.  Walter had to be discouraged from coming with us.  Kai carried him back into the yard.

No pictures taken of me on mothers day with my children.  Boo.