Hello, hello!
Welcome to another fantastic February post!
This one is chock full of excitement.
COVID era excitement, that is.
Lots of sitting around at home.
Eating things at home.
Baking things at home.
Doing school stuff at home.
Some outdoor stuff at home.
And, one trip to the zoo.
First.
Anniversary.
20-something years.
Grandma made us this glass art picture frame.
Amazing!
Yes. That is a photo from our wedding.
This picture says just about everything you need to know about our relationship.
HA!
I almost forgot. The best thing ever happened this month......
.....Gluten Free Oreos appeared and the dessert world forever changed.
Mikey had "distribution day" at school.
It's when students went and picked up whatever supplies they needed for their second semester of remote learning.
He won a Spirit Week competition during first quarter and received a prize:
Huzbend and I had our anniversary dinner (at home) that Saturday.
I had mail-ordered some single serve beef wellington and these paris-brest for dessert.
The beef wellington was really good.
Huzbend said the paris-brest were just okay.
I thought they were delicious and ate too many.
Like, at least three.
As an anniversary present to ourselves, we purchased an old Playstation and a few Dance Dance Revolution games to let the "kids" put the dance pads "they" got for Christmas to use.
I will spare you from having to watch us dance by putting this cute picture of our socks discarded so that we could get our groove on.
The next day, we volunteered with Whale Scout.
Whale Scout leads land-based whale watching and works to restore salmon habitats through ecological projects.
We volunteered to help take care of trees at one of our local parks. This park just happened to have a major salmon thoroughfare running through it.
We pulled up invasive weeds around the base of the trees and then mulched them.
If the trees are happy, the river water is happy, the salmon are happy and make more baby salmon which in the long run make the marine life that feeds on these fishies happy.
It's all for the orca, baby.
For a post-mulching lunch, I made myself this Egg Mcmuffin rip off.
This day also happened to be Superbowl Sunday.
Not one to leave the chance of eating lots of treats go to waste, Katie declared that we MUST have a Superbowl party even if we couldn't have anyone over.
First on her list....Cocoa Pebbles Treats.
Yum.
Next on her list was bacon wrapped dates.
Ralph is always willing to watch for any potential "clean up" possibilities.
More yum.
And finally, Fritos and Baked Lays.
Baked because they are healthier than fried.
I don't know.
Mikey enjoyed the feast.
I was able to drop Ralph down to one 20mg. prednisone pill every other day.
His cough did not come back.
Yay for small things.
Katie was really busy.
At the beginning of the month, she applied and was accepted to a team that was put together by our school district to work on developing an ethnic studies curriculum.
She was also working hard on her schools first "expedition".
Besides the regular curriculum (english, history, math, science, world language, PE/Health, electives), one of the focuses of her school is on interdisciplinary projects.
This means the blending of different "subjects" together.
The projects emphasize collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity.
The schools first "expedition" was regarding innovation that could stem from the current pandemic.
Students identified a problem and came up with a solution.
Katie and her team decided to work on the growing threat of misinformation.
They began work on a software program that could determine if an online news source was reliable or not, giving it a score in real time.
The school held a virtual "open house" for the students to showcase/demonstrate and answer questions about their projects.
Katie was ready to roll.
"We are the best kept secret in the galaxy. We monitor, license and police all alien activity on Earth. We're your first, last and only line of defense. We live in secret, we exist in shadow." - K
Contrary to what you may be thinking, she did not go out and conquer a Arquillian battle cruiser.
She demoed her project.
Here she is during the presentation.
Her program was named R.A.I.V.E.N.
(Review And Internal Verification of Evidence and News)
It was amazing.
She, along with some help from Huzbend, taught herself a whole lotta programming to get this done.
Congrats! We were so proud!
We got some snow!
And, there are some raccoons who like to walk in it, I guess.
"Not this stuff again. Sigh."
We got a pretty decent amount.
Maybe like 6 inches?
Mikey had to do some "community service" for Junior National Honor Society.
Because of COVID, they allowed the kids to do hours at home as long as they weren't compensated for the work and a parent signed off.
And, so, shoveling it was!
"Are we done yet?"
While Mikey shoveled, Katie couch surfed.
After our adventures in driveway and sidewalk shoveling, we all headed out for some sledding.
When you ask to be pulled on the sled and someone says yes, you take them up on it.
Mikey was tired from shoveling. He brought up the rear.
The kids were tired of sharing one saucer sled.
During the off season, we made sure to pick up some extra sleds so we'd be ready for snow.
First up was Huzbend.
Success.
Next, we have a team effort.
Annnnnnnnd......
.....success!
Both remained on the sled.
Katie was conversing with Ralph as she patiently waited for her turn.
Katie's turn.
Success and a SMILE!
Unexpected.
A man and his dog.
Both wearing winter coats.
Race time!
Human Snowball vs. Girl Who Only Sleds If Offered Hot Chocolate.
Who will win?
It was a tight race, folks.
Hoping to pull off the impossible, G.W.O.S.I.O.H.C. reached out to use her arms to propel her past the Human Snowball.....
Will the gamble pay off!?!?!
Ummmm. It's not looking good, folks.
OW.
On this day, the Human Snowball was victorious.
We shall see if his streak holds.
5 minutes later.....
*giggle*
Meanwhile....she was on a roll.
Literally.
Ha!
HEY!
LANGUAGE!
(Good thing Ralph was looking the other way. What a bad influence.)
Yes.
I was there too.
I became a dog chair.
Even with his STILL bare belly, the cold didn't seem to bother Ralph.
Knobble head.
Not only do the steroids make Ralph look like he's 10 years old, it also did not allow the fat/muscle to return to his face.
He was still cute in an old dog type of way.
This is the face of someone who has had enough of snow for the day.
This is the face of someone who can never get enough of snow.
Well, unless it soaks through his snow pants.
Eye on the prize.
The prize being hot chocolate.
Time to go home.
But, not before Katie offered to give Huzbend a lift on the sled.
Then, it was Mikey's turn.
There wasn't much movement happening, so they eventually changed places.
SNOW: PART TWO
It snowed all that day and through the night.
When we woke up on Valentine's Day we had over a foot of snow.
We had to shovel the driveway and the sidewalk again.
This time, Huzbend volunteered.
Not bad. Nice technique.
Taught him everything I know.
After shoveling, the boys built a snow fort.
Okay. Maybe fort isn't the right word.
Maybe snow tunnel?
Yep. Tunnel.
Hi Mikey!
Ralph was ready to go sledding.
Off we go!
I think someone is planning a snowball sneak attack in the background there.....
I took a slow motion ride on the sled.
We were having a competition to see who could go farthest.
Not too shabby!
Beat that!
Katie was next.
How will this end?
Good start....
I know that she made it AND she beat my record.
Here is Huzbend's attempt.
He was moving pretty fast.
Topped with a big leap right at the edge of the hill....
....But, it wasn't enough to put him past Katie.
I missed Mikey's run and jump.
Whoops.
He didn't beat Katie either.
She retained her designation as sledding distance champion.
While Katie continued sledding, Ralph posed for snowy photos.
And, licked at some snow.
The boys entertained themselves by throwing giant snowballs at each other.
REVENGE!
Before we left, Ralph ran around the tennis courts looking all cute.
When we got home, Katie rushed inside to enjoy her well earned hot chocolate.
Mikey wasn't quite done yet.
Snow angel. Check.
Snow dangly things on my hat. Check.
Snow man. Check.
Everyone went inside to relax, eat Valentines candy and to enjoy whatever they wanted for dinner.
Katie picked fried carrots and fondant potatoes.
Oh. And a Coke.
Mikey picked Sunday sauce with meatballs and ribs.
Which made him very happy.
As the temps rose overnight, the snowman was not feeling the love.
Happy Valentines Day.
The next day marked the first day of Mid-Winter Break for the kids.
Huzbend also got it off as it was Presidents' Day.
Since there was still some snow on the ground and lots of rain, we didn't do much this day.
BUT, a judo session was held in the living room.
And, guess who joined in?
She was lured by the prospect of being able to throw anyone coming in for a hug.
Take THAT!
Mikey was very happy to have a partner that was closer to his size.
On Fat Tuesday, we decided to make our own MINI King Cakes.
Two different kinds.
One was gluten free, nut free, dairy free and egg free for Mikey.
The other was gluten free, nut free, and dairy free for Katie.
Mikey version.
Katie version.
I had one of each.
The chocolate no-egg one was better.
Since the kids were on break and it was February, we headed to the Zoo.
That's just what we do in February here in the PNW.
Why mess with tradition.
Penguins still stink even when you are social distancing.
A crane was paying the penguins a visit.
I guess he didn't mind the smell.
The red pandas were hamming it up for their fans.
As you can see, the zoo was anything but crowded.
They had timed entrance to control the amount of people.
We selected the first time slot to guarantee us more space.
Katie had me take a picture of this "cute" crow.
GIRAFFE!
A lioness was out chilling on a rock.
It wasn't too cold for these monkeys.
Ralph does spend the majority of each day doing this, proving that wolves and dogs ARE closely related.
The trip to the zoo was good and needed.
Anything to get out of the house and have a change of scenery.
It was "Nailed It! At Home" time again.
This months project was Valentine's themed.
Pre-event tasks included.....
Making the cake.
These cakes always come out weird.
They are very spongy.
We also had to make some sugar cookies.
Prepped and ready for the next days event.
Mikey decided to help out with dinner.
We offer the kids chore money to make and clean up after dinner.
He made tacos.
Scooping some refried beans.
Reaction after a comment that it looks like dog poop.
Frying up some ground beef.
BAM! Tacos!
And, then, the post taco cleanup.
Doggo is again conveniently located to help with any mess that ends up on the floor.
With his current food restrictions, this became Mikey's dessert of choice.
Enjoy Life cookies (I'm not sure what that other chocolate thing is) topped with coconut whipped cream.
The last tiny bit of the snow from earlier in the month.
BYE, FELICIA!
Time for the "Nailed It!" event.
Katie took care of the cake frosting this time.
I was on fondant duty.
She also decorated the sugar cookies.
I continued to work on the fondant.
We definitely didn't finish in the one hour time limit.
Oh well.
This is what we were going for.....
And, this is our final product.....
CHEEEEEZE!
Later that day, judo happened outside on the deck.
The special guest returned.
This time with a belt.
We ate the cake for dessert.
It was actually pretty tasty.
Even with the fondant and weird spongy consistency.
The last week of February, the kids were back "at school".
There were lots of meetings, the kids had a dentist appointment and I took Ralph back into the vet AGAIN.
Not only had he NOT grown back his hair from his ultrasound shave in December, but his skin was peeling off.
Yes. Peeling.
He was also losing chunks of hair. Not just shedding.
I thought it had to do with the prednisone he was still taking.
Doctor didn't think so.
They sent him home with antibiotics and a special shampoo.
I was to bathe him twice a week for three weeks.
NOTE: I have never given Ralph a bath. Ever. In his entire life.
It is hilarious how much my kids love to use the leaf blower.
They will make a 5 minute job into a 30 minutes job just so they can shoot jets of air at things.
Who's shoes are those?
Hmmmm.
I'm thinking she might actually enjoy this judo thing.
She got a gi.
Close to the end of the workout tragedy struck.
She got her foot stuck underneath while turning out of a hold down.
OW.
The rest of the day was spent resting, icing, and elevating.
