Caught the Rona

 Last week started off as normal.  We had a fun day on Tuesday at Dewberry Farm.  We had not been there in years because of Covid.  It was a beautiful day.  It was warm, but the clouds always kept the sun at bay.  It was really breezy, which felt great.  The kids started off riding the pedal cars.  One in particular had to be reminded they were not bumper cars...more than once.  

Not this one.

Not this one, either.

Our bumper car man.

From there we did the Slide Mountain countless times.  Henry and Caroline were able to time it so they could race each other.  Those are Henry's friends cheering him on, but alas, the girl got him.

And then we headed to the corn maze.  There was a big group of us and we decided to let the kids have an adventure and sent them all in with the one rule, "Stay Together!"  I had gone in a few years ago and it really is a maze - there are no arrows or anything indicating which direction is the correct way to go.  After 20 minutes or so, Caroline walked out the front.  Alone.  Why didn't you guys stay together!??!  She wasn't upset or anything.  They just decided to take separate ways.  Before I knew it, she was turning around to go find them again.  Another ten minutes elapsed and Josiah walked out a side exit.  Again, alone.  He said he told them he found an exit, but no one wanted to exit.  He went back in search of the crew.  Finally more time passed, and the whole lot of them came out of a very far exit near the back.  And that was it for the corn maze.

Our entrance photo, so we knew how many went in:

Caroline walking out the first time.

We took a train ride.

The Ferris wheel was not operating.  We went on a school day, so they limit what's available.  On the weekends you have to pay tickets to do all the things.  So, we got a great deal by being able to do all the available things as many times as we wanted.  On the train ride, Caroline saw their Christmas tree farm.

Jumped on the pillow balloons.

Fed the goats.  (Just Henry.)  

And jumped with the hay ropes.  It was a great time with friends.  By the end we were tired and ready to go home.

We took care of Benson as soon as we got home by giving him some outside time.  Benson often likes company with him, so I sat out there for a while.  He is a crazy good jumper, but I had never been able to capture his full abilities.  This afternoon, however, the squirrels were messing with him and he was jumping!  

That evening, the kids were getting ready for jiu-jitsu.  As they were leaving the house, Benson squeezed out the front door.  The kids screamed bloody murder.  I passed off a bone to Henry and got my car keys since I wasn't sure if he was going to be a runner.  He made it to the side yard and then just darted back and forth a lot.  Since there were four on the ground trying to get him and me in the car, we were able to keep him somewhat contained.  After what felt like a lot longer than it actually was, Todd was able to get Benson to sit-down-stay.  He gave him the bone in exchange for his collar.  He was back in the house and they weren't even late to jiu-jitsu.  It was good because Josiah earned his fourth stripe that night.  It's been a long time coming for him, so he was happy to earn it.  In the chaos of Benson getting out, though, Caroline stepped in a fire ant pile and got a bunch of bites on her feet.  She was wearing flip-flops, so that didn't help!

The next day, Josiah wanted to do his Wednesday night KSM at church.  He had told me days prior that lots of kids get things out of the vending machines and he would love to get a honey bun.  I told him where I kept some ones and said he could get one to buy himself a honey bun.  It didn't really come up again until I picked him up that night.  He walked down the hallway carrying a bag of cookies which he handed off to Henry and Caroline to share.  Then he handed me a Kit Kat.  

Me -Where did you get these?

Josiah- From the vending machine.

How much money did you take?

J - $2 I think.  

Did you get a honey bun?

J - Yes.

That's more than $2.  The he went into his vending machine tale.  He did get himself a honey bun.  He also bought his friend a soda.  Then he said he was standing in front of the vending machine trying to decide what to buy Henry and Caroline when a lady passed him.  They had a short conversation and at the end, she gave him another dollar.  I think he admitted to bringing $4.  I told him, though very kind, stick to just the honey bun (and maybe a soda for your friend).  

And then that night everything went downhill.  I was not feeling well and decided to go to bed at 8:30.  Sign number one that this was not going to be a good night.  I woke up at 11:30 p.m. with a fever of 103.7° and the most massive headache I have ever experienced.  My whole head felt swollen.  It hurt.  Really bad.  I texted our CC people that we would not be there in the morning.   Thursday, I laid in bed all day.  (Josiah, thankfully, was able to Zoom into his class.)  Todd went out that afternoon to get a home covid test.  I read all the directions very carefully and took the test.  Though they said to read the results only between 15 and 30 minutes after testing, my "positive" line showed up very dark after only five.  Not good.  Then it became a texting marathon - I just tested positive for covid and we were near each other within the past 5-7 days.  Very quickly our bedroom became my isolation room and only Todd was able to come in with a mask (and provisions!).  Fortunately, my CC director is a RN and was able to answer all of our questions.  Todd tested himself after 4 days and he's negative (and no symptoms - he's asthmatic, so he'd likely show symptoms).  The kids are all showing zero symptoms.  We'll test them on Day 11 just to make sure.  I have absolutely no idea how none of them have gotten sick since we all were breathing the same air before I took the test.  But we're happy for it.  It was a rough virus.  Much tougher to go through than I expected even though I had what would be classified as mild symptoms.  And I have recovered very quickly, thank God.  Right now I'm still hanging out in the isolation room for the most part.  If I have to come downstairs I'll wear a double mask and I do not touch anyone and I keep my distance.  In the morning, Caroline likes to come upstairs and ask me, "Can you put on gloves and cut my bagel?"  

We're doing almost all of our school.  At first the kids would take pictures of their math pages and I would draw red or green over their problems and text the corrections back to them.  It wasn't ideal, but it worked.  Now I just put gloves on and mark their pages.  

So here we sit in a waiting game to see when we're free to go about our business again.  

And another picture of Benson.