Well, October is now behind us. Despite missing some of our usual activities and events due to...you got it...Covid, we still managed to have some fun. There were not many "official" changes this month regarding the pandemic, other than North Carolina being moved to "Phase 3" on the 3rd. I think the only changes associated with this were that large outdoor sports venues could allow 7% occupancy and movie theaters, bars, and amusement parks could open at 30% capacity. So, none of this really meant much to us. There was much angst towards the middle and end of this month surrounding "the numbers going up", which I think means that more positive cases were reported. We had three people close to us be diagnosed with the virus - Olivia's mom and dad, and the girls' science teacher. All 3 did fine and did not require any hospitalization or anything special.
So, Covid continues to be at the forefront of everyone's minds, unfortunately. We are all very tired of it! We feel fortunate that the kids are at least able to be at school, and they have settled in to the adjusted routine there. It's definitely not the fun, vibrant place it normally is, but at least they are there. Wake county public schools finally started allowing 1/3 of grades K-3 back one week at a time...so they will rotate with one week in school and 2 weeks at home. Middle school will follow the same pattern starting in November, followed by grades 4-5 (?). High school will remain virtual through the end of the semester.
Ok, enough whining about that. What did we do this month? We had a fun weekend of the 3rd-4th with soccer, birthday playdate/sleepover at Sarah's for Anna, a day watching dog friend Ruby, a fun friend reunion with Whitney and Melanie and our daughters (minus Anna), Erin's first time back to altar serving since pre-Covid, and Bob doing the regular meal service on Saturday and Sunday. Not only was Erin back to altar serving, but she had the honor of being there for the naming of Fr. Staib to Monsignor! The bishop showed up (did not celebrate Mass; he only did the presentation)...how cool was that?!
The following week, the kids had standardized testing for 2 days and I worked at the school used uniform sale on the evening of the 6th. We had a really fun visit from Grandma A. and Ansley from the 9th-11th. We stayed busy with soccer, making 10 pans of rice krispie treats for the church meals, making applesauce and a lantern craft, Mexican takeout, church, board games, and lots of fun!
The following week was more of the usual, including a half day early release for the kids on Friday to mark the end of the first quarter. Anna had friend Caroline over to play in the afternoon before soccer. The weekend was more soccer, Wolfpack football (they are having a pretty good year so far, but sadly the quarterback has recently been injured), meals, and church. The week of the 19th was preparation for Erin's birthday! You can read all about her big birthday weekend HERE. Anna also had a fun day at Jordan Lake with friend Sofia on Saturday.
After returning from Concord, it was back to school for another full week, including a "Halloween colors dress-down day" on Friday (no costumes this year due to Covid). Erin also got to wear last year's (unused) recital costume to ballet on Thursday.
We had the remnants of Hurricane Zeta come through on Friday, but we just had some wind and only a little rain. Areas west of here got hit much harder. I agreed to help restart the neighborhood newsletter, so I had a meeting and a little work for that. I think it will be fun and easy way to volunteer for the neighborhood, which I have never officially done before. Anna's outdoor soccer ended on the 17th, but she is jumping right into indoor futsal for 6 weeks that started on the 30th. So far, she likes that, too!
We had a good Halloween! It was nice and less rushed being on a Saturday this year! We had some sausage dip and carved pumpkins around noon before Bob left to do the meals. Then we relaxed for awhile before trick-or-treating, which started around 6pm. Erin was a watermelon and Anna was a zombie soccer player (and Finley was, too!). The kids made their own costumes this year, which I thought was awesome! Due to Covid, many neighbors were not handing out candy or sending their kids out, but we did both. Finley and I sat with candy baggies on our card table at the end of our driveway, and Erin joined us about halfway through . The kids had a walkie talkie with them, which worked well for checking in. Anna and Laney powered through until about 7:30, when everyone was cold and tired. So it was inside for hot chocolate and Hotel Transylvania. They got LOADS of candy...seemed like more per house since many people made pre-bagged treats bags for the kids. Also, most people were set up at the end of their driveways, so that meant less walking up/down driveways. The kids liked that! It was also nice to have daylight savings time clock reset that night, so everyone got a little more sleep. I think this is the first year that everyone actually slept for that extra hour. Score!
