May 2020

 May.
The beginning of the third month of Stay-At-Home.

It was hard to believe that at this point the kids had been out of school and Huzbend home from work for 2 whole months.

Although we had all gotten used to the day to day, I would have to say that Ralph was the one that was enjoying the "At Home" thing the most.
We hadn't left him alone in what must've felt like forever to him.

Friday's became mow, trim and weed day.

Due to the abundance of sun, warm weather and tiny bit of rain, everything was growing like crazy.

On May 1st, I found a cocoon nestled underground as I pulled up a weed.

Whatever was inside was still alive, because it was moving ever so slightly.

Katie and I did a bit of research and found out that it was probably a moth cocoon.

Katie decided to "adopt" it.

We buried it in some dirt in a paper cup and waited for it to hatch.

Say hello to Fluffy the Moth 

(who is not so fluffy in cocoon form but hopefully would be when they hatched).

My free time this month was taken up with PTA awards.

I led my local middle school PTA awards committee as well as the Council level awards committee.

My job was to gather nominations, decide along with other committee members who would win and then come up with a way to celebrate them in the age of Zoom PTA meetings.

It was stressful.

Long story short, with the help of my committee members, we were able to pull off a "Publisher's Clearing House" surprise at each winners house presenting them with their award and a sign.

For the middle school PTA, I wrote up some nice statements about the winners to read at our Zoom PTA meeting (I was able to surprise our Outstanding Educator at the Staff Meeting thanks to help from the principal).

For the Council PTA, I asked the community to send in photos, videos and blurbs about each winner and then I put them into a slide show which I "shared" during our Awards Presentation meeting.

I was SO happy when all of it was over.

Happy because the work was complete and happy because I helped make a lot of other people happy by giving them awards for all the good they do everyday for our community.

Enough about me....

Realizing that school, and life, was not going to return to "Old Normal" anytime soon, I measured the kids for face masks.

That first weekend in May, Katie and Huzbend worked on making Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner.

MMMMMMM.

And even more MMMMMMMMMM were the GF BEIGNETS Katie and I made for dessert.

Okay, so our beignets were a little flat.

Powdered Sugar Girl did a good job adding the sweetness.

I don't think too much sugar ended up being licked off her fingers....

Ralph likes to park himself on the floor whenever we are frying something.

As soon as we move out of the way, he will get up and lick the floor clean of any spatters that may have occurred.

Here is the end result....of our baking, not Ralph licking oil splatters.

Not too shabby.

They were tasty!

Katie's first bite of a beignet.

The eyes say it all.

I guess she liked them.

Um. You got a little something on your nose.....

That Sunday, we noticed that Ralph wasn't acting like his normal self.

He wasn't getting up to scrounge in the kitchen for crumbs when we ate breakfast or lunch.

He wasn't coming to say HI when any of us walked in the room.

And, sometimes, when he stretched or moved a certain way he would yelp.

I used all my knowledge to see if I could ascertain what was wrong - pushing, pulling and poking him gently to find a sore spot. I got nuthin'.

I ended up taking him to an emergency clinic because I didn't want to take the chance that maybe it was something that he ate out in the yard that was poisonous or anything.

The emergency vet had all sorts of safety protocols because of COVID.

I had to call when I got there and they came out and got Ralph from me.

Then, they called to let me know what they thought was wrong with him.

The vet told me she had no idea.

He was full of energy with his tail wagging. He was happy to see everyone.

Sigh.

She couldn't see anything wrong.

To be sure, I had them do some x-rays to see if there was anything in his stomach or a broken bone somewhere (he's very pain tolerant).

Nothing.

The only thing the vet could think of is that maybe he pulled a muscle somewhere or hurt his neck or back. She gave us some pain meds and an anti-inflammatory and we went on home.

As soon as we gave him the drugs, he began to act like normal....except a little bit MORE lazy than usual due to the drugs drowsiness side effect.

The following week was School Staff Appreciation week..

Katie helped make these nice signs for the staff still working at our middle school.

I forgot to mention another Katie science experiment last month.

She created a "Naked Egg".

She covered an egg with vinegar and let it sit 24 hours. Then she changed out the vinegar and let it sit for almost a week more. When she poured off the vinegar, the chemical that made the shell of the egg hard had disintegrated leaving just a firm membrane holding the egg in one piece.

She was very excited to "pop" her egg after gently hugging and smooshing it a few times.

Here's a short video of the gloopiness.

Katie's drama class had to get creative during remote learning.

She had to choose from a variety of assignments each week.

This particular week, she chose a news report and enlisted Mikey to help.

And, thus, "Doggy Puppy Ralph News" was born.

In this segment, Mikey was interviewed about the discovery of Fluffy the Moth

who was currently residing in cocoon form within this cup in our kitchen.

Using any excuse to celebrate a holiday - which equals "Free Special Treats" in our household - Katie decided to create a treat for May the Fourth/Star Wars Day.

We made "Oreo Truffles."

In our house they were actually "KiniToo Truffles."

Relatively simple to make, we whipped these up in, like, 15 minutes.

We had to melt some chocolate to make the chocolate coating.

Someone gets just a little silly when eating working with chocolate.

Hmmm.

The finished product.

The ones on the left are supposed to be TIE Fighters.

The ones on the right, just fancy chocolates.

Here's a close up....

Katie used the creamy insides of the cookies as a topping.

And, here are the TIE fighters.

Surprisingly, Huzbend did NOT think these were too sweet.

Huh.

I had to make some more room in our downstairs area.

There were some things that had to go.

Like, cardboard weapons and armor that had been made and stacked up over the years.

Katie wanted one last picture before we retired these.

That one last picture turned into a series of photos.

BLAMMO!

The kids made a lot of videos for school in May.

In this one, for Katie's Social Studies class, she had to create her own political party.

This time, she enlisted Mikey to be the anchor of "Doggy Puppy Ralph News".

Shockingly, she got him to wear a button down shirt!

Getting into the nitty gritty details of the parties agenda.

"See you next time!"

We have a very acrobatic squirrel in our backyard.

This weekends baking experiment was GF soft pretzels.

We found the process of making actual pretzel shaped pretzels really challenging.

So, we made the rest of the dough into pretzel bites.

They were REALLY good the first day.

Got soggy and not so good on the second day.

Our hanging strawberry plant gave us its first strawberry.

Katie said it was sour.

We have to have a hanging strawberry plant because Ralph and the backyard bunnies decimated our ground strawberry plants.

It was Mother's Day.

No Color Run this year due to COVID.

Sigh.

That's okay.

It was a beautiful day.

Huzbend and I headed over to a neighbors house for a social distanced "happy hour" in their driveway.

We brought our own beverages and snacks.

Although we were far enough away from everyone that we had to raise our voices to talk with each other, I was still nervous being with other people.

We came back to our house to find this on the sidewalk.

Awwww.

So sweet!

Usually, when we do the Color Run (which always ends up on Mother's Day), we eat at The Melting Pot the night before.

It's a running joke that Mikey calls it "The Hot Pot."

We decided to recreate it at home.

We melted up some cheese and dipped various tasty items in it.

We followed that up with dessert fondue.

Huzbend ate, like, one chocolate covered banana piece and was done.

Mikey tapped out pretty quickly as he loves the cheese fondue and had filled up at dinner.

This one though.....

She ate all the marshmallows and helped me polish off the remainder of the chocolate.

Sometimes, on Sunday nights, Mikey has a hard time getting to sleep.

It could be that his brain won't shut off, that he's worried about something, that he keeps having bad dreams, maybe he had too much chocolate (or cheese?) fondue....The reason changes.

But, I find the easiest way for him to get to sleep and for me to get at least a bit of shut eye is to just lay down on his floor.

He falls asleep right away.

I will have to say that the giant stuffed animal bear that I use for a pillow is pretty comfortable.

The sunrise the next day was beautiful.

Our weather in May was pretty spectacular.

Again, it went to waste because of the pandemic.

I tried to make something new for dinner.

Yay, me.

I made twice baked potatoes.

Which were DELICIOUS, if I do say so myself.

They were accompanied by steak and corn on the cob.

That next weekend I spent in front of my computer attending the General Sessions and some classes of the Washington State PTA Virtual Convention.

It was a pretty impressive affair.

They offered live webinar classes over 10 days.

The one thing that all the attendees (or at least this one) missed most about being physically at Convention were the candy bowls that are usually passed around.

While I was busy learning and stuff, Katie was busy making meringues.

Katie got word that she was accepted into her middle school National Junior Honor Society.

She had to submit a photo of herself for a virtual, prerecorded celebration.

Here's her photo.

In a fit of passion over learning how fish breathe, Katie created this sidewalk "How It Works" to educate our neighborhood.

It included a key for the different colors that were used to represent different things.

There was one diagram explaining how a fishes gills work.

And another diagram depicting how humans breathe.

Ralph.

The Fuzzy Study Buddy.

It was Mikey's turn to do a video.

He had to do a science demonstration for school.

He started off with the Pepper and Soap demonstration.

But, I guess that demo wasn't cool or dramatic enough.

He switched over to the Tea Bag Rocket demonstration.

In a bit of "Awwwww, isn't that sweet?!?!?" news....

Apparently, a 6th grader in our neighborhood missed seeing Ralph after school everyday.

We would wait at the corner for Katie and all sorts of kids would walk over and pet him.

He missed him so much that he decided to make Ralph a care package.

He even made a card!

Ralph was in doggo heaven.

There were homemade treats in the box!!

As Ralph we distracted by treats, the bunnies in our yard took advantage.

We got up early the Sunday before Memorial Day and headed out to hike.

It was the first time we had been out of the house as a family.

We made sure to take extra precautions by wearing masks, maintaining 6 foot distancing where possible, and bringing along hand sanitizer.

I hadn't gotten this "WHY ARE YOU TAKING MY PICTURE" look in so long.

The trail was pretty wide, so it was easy to step to the side when encountering other people.

Most of them had masks as well.

But, it was quickly apparent, that it was not very fun to hike in a cloth mask.

Especially when the majority of the hike to our destination was uphill.

UGH.

Our first destination was an overlook.

Yay, family photo time!

A little bit closer up.

We continued on.

Ralph was very excited to be out and about.

He sniffed up a storm.

We stopped for lunch up on a hillside overlooking a lake.

That way, we didn't have to worry about social distancing while eating.

After lunch, we hiked our way around the lake.

Ralph took the opportunity to cool off (and quench his thirst) in this little brook.

Mikey was NOT a fan of hiking with a mask on.

Ooooo.

Pretty.

One last look at the lake before we hiked back down the car.

The hike was all downhill from the lake.

It made for very oweee knees.

Lo and behold!

On Memorial Day, Fluffy the Moth hatched and he was indeed fluffy!

He was a pretty big sucker.

I'm not quite sure how he even fit in that cocoon.

"Please, let me out. I'm ready to FLY!"

Katie was SUPER EXCITED that Fluffy had hatched.

She loved him and his fluffiness.

After admiring him for a bit, she did the hard thing and let her baby go.

That afternoon, as I was prepping PTA awards for pick up, two of my committee members surprised me and gave me an award from Council.

They got me good.

"Me CRUSH all tasks. Me organize like no one's business!"

Of course, with the hatching of Fluffy, there had to be a follow up news report.

"Doggy Puppy Ralph News" happily reported on Fluffy's birthday.

Mikey had to do a year end Talent video.

He decided to show off his pogo skills.

And in yet ANOTHER video, he modeled out a roller coaster that he designed and advertised as a part of his school work.

Ralph's excitement that last weekend in May was receiving a new bag of dog food via Amazon.

As I refilled the tub we keep his food in, he inconspicuously took the cup we use as a scoop.

He was very happy with himself.

I was the party pooper and took it away.

That last weekend in May was a rainy mess.

It was quite different than the rest of the month which was sunny and warm.

Video footage of the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer had just been released.

The world was beginning to explode with protests (with some looting and some riots) and had begun to take a hard look at our country and its racial disparities.

There was also a lot of Left Vs. Right/Republicans Vs. Democrats/Us Vs. Them.

It was overwhelming, inescapable and depressing.

That Saturday, May 30th, a community member organized a car parade for a teen at our middle school who had recently come home from Seattle Children's Hospital. He had been diagnosed with "multisystem inflammatory syndrome". This illness had been effecting some kids around the country who had had COVID-19. He nearly died in the ICU. His family, hoping to alert the public about the syndrome, made his plight public and immediately drew blow back because they were "alarmist and sowing fear in the community" as well as death threats about "how they almost let their kid die". It was horrible, but shows you where our world was at the time.

Since I knew the organizer, I volunteered to help. 

Huzbend, Katie and Mikey decorated the car and drove in the parade.

It was so inspiring to see how many community members - including the police and fire department - came out in the pouring rain to honk and cheer for this kid they did not know.

It was a good way to end the month.